1875 Taylor Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries

THE

ELEUSINIAN

AND

BACCHIC MYSTERIES. . ,.

· A DISSERTATION.

BY THOMAS :IAYLOR,

THIRD EDITION.

EDITED,

WITH INTRODUCTION,. NOTES, DIENDATIONS, AND GLOSSARY,

BY ALEXANDER WILDER, M.D.

Ev raz> TEAP.TAI::E Jar0ap6Ez; 1jyovvraz xaz 1C:Cptp-1 pctVZ'J7fJlO: XO:I ayvlrJj~Ol, a l'OUY f.Y O:'TCOpfjl/l'OZS 6pou

f.U:YOUV, xaz n1> ruv Oczov I.IEZ"ov6za> yvpva6tcara cr6tv. PROCLUS: Jl:fanuscript Commmtary upon Plato, I. A/cibiadu.

NEW YORK:

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COPYRIGHTED, IN 1875, RY

J. W. BOUTON.

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" 'Tis not merely The human being's pride that peoples space With life and mystical predominance, Since likewise for the stricke~ heart of Love This visible nature, and this common world Is all too narrow ; yea, a deeper import Lurks in the legend told my infant years That lies upon that truth, we live to learn, For fable is Love's world, his home, his birthplace; Delightedly he dwells 'mong fays and talismans, And spirits, and delightedly believes Divinities, being himself divine. The intelligible forms of ancient poets, The fair humanities of Old Religion, The Power, the Beauty, and the Majesty, That had their haunts in dale or piny mountain, Or forest by slow stream, or pebbly spring, Or chasms or wal'ry depths ;-all these have vanished. They live no longer in the faith of Reason, But still the heart doth need a language ; still Doth the old instinct bring back the old names."

SCHILLER: Tlu Pi((o/omini, Act ii. Scene 4o

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INTRODUCTION

TO THE THIRD EDITION.

I N offering to the public a new edition of Mr. Thomas Taylor's admirable treatise upon the

Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, it is proper to

insert a few words of explanation. ~hese observances once represented the spiritual life of Greece,

'-- . and were considered for two thousand year~ and

~ore the appointed means for regeneration: t~rough an interior union with the Divine Essence. However absurd, or even offensive they may seem to us, we should therefore hesitate long before we

venture to lay desecrating bands on what others · I

h~ve esteemed holy. 1/We can learn a valuable lesson m this regard from the Grecian and Roman writers, who had learned to treat the popular religious rites with mirth, but always considered the

Eleusinian Mysteries with the deepest reverence. It is ignorance which leads to profanation. Men

ridicule what they do not properly understand/'


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VI Introductz'on.

Alcibiades was drunk when he ventured to touch

what his countrymen deemed sacred. The under

current of this world is set toward one goal ; and inside of human credulity-call it human weak

ness, if you please-is a power almost infinite, a

holy faith capable of apprehending the supremest truths of all Existence. The veriest dreams of

life, pertaining as they do to " the minor mystery of death," have in them more than external fact can

reach or explain; and Myth, however much she is

proved to be a child of Earth, is also received among men as the child of Heaven. The Cinder

Wench of the ashes will become the Cinderella of tne Palace, and be wedded to the King's Son.

The instant that we attempt to analyze, the

sensible, palpable facts upon which so many try to build, disappear beneath the surface, like a founda

tion laid upon quicksand. " In the deepest reflection," says a distinguished writer, "all that we call

external is only the material basis upon which our dreams are built; and the sleep that surrounds life

swallows up life,-all but a dim wreck of matter, floating this way and that, and forever evanishing

from sight. Complete the analysis, and we lose even the shadow of the external Present, and only

the Past and the Future are left us as our sure inheritance. This is the first initiation,-the vailing


Introductz'on. VII

[mum's] of the eyes to the external. But ~s epoptce,

by the synthesis of this Past and Future in a living\

nature, we obtain a higher, an ideal Present, com

prehending within itself all that can be real for us ) ·

within us or without. This is the second initiation

in which is unvailed to us the Present as a new

birth from our own life. Thus the great problem

of ldealis,m is symbolically solved in the Eleu-

sinia." * These were the most celebrated of all the sacred

orgies, and were called, by way of eminence,

The Mysteries. Although exhibiting apparently J the features of an Eastern origin, they were evi- 1

dently copied from the rites of Isis in Egypt~ an j idea of which, more or less · correct, may be found :

in The Metamorphoses of Apuleius and The Epi- :.

curran by Thomas Moore./ Every act, rite, and !

person engaged in them was symbolical; and the

individual revealing them was put to death without

mercy. So also was any uninitiated person who i happened to be present. Persons of all ages and \.

both sexes were initiated ; and neglect in this re- /

spect, as in the case of Socrates, was regarded as

impious and atheistical. It was required of all

candid~tes that they should be first admitted at the :

Mikra or Lesser Mysteries of Agrre, by a process .1

.- . & I

*At/anti( Monthly, vol. iv. September, 1859·


-- . .. -- ----------..

VIII Introductz"on. /

/ of fasting called purification, after which they were

styled mysta, or initiates. A year later, thOf might

enter the higher degree. In this they learned the

aporrhd,z, or secret meaning of the rites, and were

thenceforth· denominated ephori, or epopta. To

I

\ some of the interior mysteries, however, only a. ~ery select number obtained admission. From these

were taken all the ministers of the holy rites.

The Hierophant who presided was bound to celi

bacy, and required to devote his entire life to his

sacred office. He had three assistants,-the torch-

bearer, the keru:x or crier, and the minister at

the altar. There were also a basileus or king, who

was an archon of Athens, four curators, elected by

suffrage, and ten to offer sacrifices.

The sacred Orgies were celebrated on every fifth

year; and began on the 15th of the month Boedro

mian or September. The first day was styled the

agurmos or assembly, because the worshippers then ,, • convened. The second was the day of purification,

called also alade mystai, from the proclamation :

· "To the sea, initiated ones! " The third day was

the day of sacrifices; for which purpose were offered

a mullet and barley from a field in Eleusis. The

officiating persons were forbidden to taste of either;

the offering was for Achthe~a (the sorrowing one,

Demeter) alone. On the fourth day was a solemn


.....

Introduction. IX

procession. The kalafhos or sacred basket was borne, followed by women, ci'sfot or chests in which

were sesamum, carded wool, salt, pomegranates, \. poppies,- also thyrsi, a serpent, boughs of ivy, \' I cakes, etc. The fifth day was denominated the day of torches. In the evening were torchlight proces-sions and much tumult.

The sixth was a great occasion. The statue of

Iacchus, the sou of Zeus and Demeter, was brought

from Athens, by the Iacchogoroi, all crowned with

myrtle. In the way was heard only an uproar of singing and the beating of brazen kettles, as the

votaries danced and ran along. The image was

borne " through the sacred Gate, along the sacred way, halting by the sacred fig-tree (all sacred, mark you, from Eleusinian associations), where the pro

cession rests, and then moves on to the bridge over

the Cephissus, where again it rc:sts, and where the expression of the wildest grief gives place to the

trifling farce,--even as Demeter, in the midst of her grief, smiled at the levity of Iamb6 in the palace of

Celeus. Through the ' mystical entrance ' we enter Eleusis. On the seventh day, games are celebrated ;

and to the victor is given a measure of barley,-as it were a gift direct from th6 hand of the goddess.

The eighth is sacred to 1Esculapius, the Divine


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X Introduction.

Physician, who heals all diseases; and in the even

ing is performed the initiatory ritual. 1/

" Let us enter the mystic temple and be initiated,

-though it must be supposed that, a year ago, we were initiated into the Lesser Mysteries at Agrre.

I)N e must have been mysta (vailed), before we can become epopta (seers); in plain English;· we must

have shut our eyes to all else before we can behold the Mysteries. · Crowned with myrtle, we enter with

the other initiates into the vestibule of the temple,

blind as yet, but the Hierophant within will soon

open our eyes.

"But first,-for here we must do nothing rashly, -first we must wash in this holy water; for it is

with pure hands and a pure heart that we are bidden

to enter the most sacred enclosure [Jlv<1-rzxoS' <7'1f

xoS', musfikos sekos ] . Then, led into the presence of the Hierophant,* he reads to us, from a book of

stone [?terpoo)la, petroma], things which we must

not divulge on pain of death. Let it suffice that

* In the Oriental countries the designation ,n!l. Pet" (an interpreter), appears to have been the title of this personage ; and the petroma consisted, notably enough, of two tablets of stone. There is in these facts some reminder of the peculiar circum-

. stances of the Mosaic Law which was so preserved; and also of the claim of the Pope to be the successor of Peter, the hierophant or interpreter of the Christian religion.


Introduction. XI

. they fit the place and the occasion; and though you

might laugh at them, if they were spoken outside, still you seem very far from that mood now, as you

hear the words of the old man (for old he always

was), and look upon the revealed symbols. And very far, indeed, are you from ridicule, when Deme

ter seals, by her own peculiar utterance and signals,

by vivid coruscations ~f light, and cloud piled upon cloud, all that we have seen and heard from her sacred priest; and then, finally, the light of a serene

wonder fills the temple, and we see the pure fields of Elysium, and hear the chorus of the Blessed;

then, not merely by external seeming or philosophic

interpretation, but in real fact, does the Hierophant

become the Creator [ «f17,t.uovpyo>, demzaurg-os] and

Revealer of all things; the Sun is but his torc::h

bearer, the Moon his attendant at the altar, and

Hermes his mystic herald • [x17pve, keru.x]. But

the final word has been uttered ' Con.x Om pax.'

The rite is consummated, and we are epoptm for-.?

ever!"

Those who are curious to know the mn~ __ on which the " mystical drama" of the Eleusinia i~ founded will find it in any Classical Dictionary, a~ well as in these pages. It is only pertinent here to

give some idea of the meaning. That it was re-* POllPHY&Y.


XII Introduction.

garded as protound i/~vident from the peculiar

rites, and the obligations imposed on every initiated

person. It was a reproach not to observe them. Socrates was accused of atheism, or disrespect to

the gods, for having never been initiated.* Any person accidentally guilty of homicide, or of

any crime, or cenvicted of witchcraft, was ex

cluded. The secret doctrines, it is supposed, were the same as are expressed in the celebrated

Hymn of Cleanthes. The philosopher !socrates thus bears testimony: "She [Demete'r] ga,·e us

two gifts that are the most excellent; fruits, that

we might not live like beasts; and that iqitiation,

-those who have part in which have sweeter hope, both as regards the close of life and for all eter

nity." In like manner Pindar also declares:

" Happy is he who has beheld them, and descends into the Underworld : he knows the end, he knows

the origin of life."/,;

* Andmt Sym!Jol- Worsnip, page 12, note. "Socrates was not initiated. yet after drinking the hemlock, he addressed Crito : • We owe a cock to 1Esculapius.' This was the peculiar offering made by initiates (now called lur!mop!uJn) on the eve of the last day, and he thus symbolically asserted that he was about toreceive the great apocalypse."

See, also, "Progrus of Rdigious Itkas," by LYDIA MARIA

CHILD, vol. ii. p. 3o8; and " Discoursu on IM Won nip of ,Priapus," by RICHARD PAYNE KNIGHT.


•

•

Introductt"on. XIII

The Bacchic Orgies were said to have been insti

tuted, or more probably reformed by Orpheus, a mythical personage, supposed to have flourished in

Thrace. • The Orphic associations dedicated them

selves to the worship of Bacchus, in which they hopP-d to finrl the gratification of an ardent longing after the worthy and · elevating influences of a re-

• EUR.IPIDKS: Rlzauus. "Orpheus showed forth the rites of the hidden Mysteries."

PLATO : ProlaEoras. "The art of a sophist or sage is an. cient, but the men who proposed it in ancient times, fearing the odium attached to it, sought to conceal it, and vailed it over, some under the garb of poetry, as Homer, Hesiod and Simonides : and others under that of the Mysteries and prophetic manias, such as Orpheus, MuSlleus, and the1r followers."

Herodotus takes a different view-ii. 49· " Melampus, the son of Amytheon," he says, " introduced into Greece the name of Dionysus (Bacchus), the ceremonial of his worship, anti the procession of the phallus. He did not. however, so completely apprehend the whole doctrine as. to be able to communicate it entirely: but various sages, since his time, have carried out his teaching to greater perfection. Still it is certain that Melampus introduced the phallus, and that the Greeks learnt from him the ceremonies which they now practice. I therefore maintain that Melampus, who was a sage, and had acquired the art of divination, having become acquainted with the worship of Dionysus through knowledge derived from Egypt, introduced it into Greece, with a few slight changes; at the same time that he brought in various other practices. For I can by no means allow that it is by mere coincidence that the Bacchic ceremonies iD Greece are so nearly the same as the Egyptian."


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XIV IntroducNon.

ligious life. The worshippers did not indulge in unrestrained pleasure and frantic enthusiasm, but

rather aimed at an ascetic purity of life and

manners. The worship of Dionysus was the

center of their ideas, and the starting-p-oint of all

their speculations upon the world and human na

ture. They believed that human souls were con

fined in the body as in a prison, a condition which

was denominated genesis or generation ; from which

Dionysus would liberate them. Their sufferings,

the stages by which they passed to a higher form of

existence, their katharsis or purification, and their

enlightenment constituted the themes of the

Orphic writers. All this was represented in the

legend which constituted the groundwork of the

mystical rites.

Dionysus-Zagreus was the son of Zeus, whom

he had begotten in the form of a dragon or serpent,

upon the person of Kore or Persephoneia, consid

ered by some to have been identical with Ceres or

Demeter, and by others to have been her daughter.

The former idea is more probably the more correct.

Ceres or Demeter was called Kore at Cnidos.

She is called Phersephetta in a fragment by Psel

lus, and is also styled a Fury The divine child,

an avatar or incarnation of Zeus, was denominated

Zagreus, or Chakra (Sanscrit) as being destined to

Digitiz~d by Goog I e

Introduc#on. XV

universal dominion. But at the instigation of

Hera" the Titans conspired to murder him. Ac

cordingly, one day while he was contemplating a

mirror,t they set upon him, disguised under a coat

ing of plaster, and tore him into seven parts.

Athena, however, rescued from them his heart

which was swallo~ed by Zeus, and so returned

*Hera, generally regarded as the Greek title of Juno, is not the definite name of any goddess, hut was used by ancient writers as a designation only. It signifies dumim or lady, and appears to be of Sanscrit origin. It is applied to Ceres or Demeter, and other divinities.

t The mirror was a part of the symbolism of the Thesmophoria, and was used in the search fur Atmu, the Hidden One, evidently the same as Tammuz, Adonis, and Atys. See Exodus xxxviii. 8 ; I Samuel ii. 22 ; and Eukid viii. 14 But despite the assertion of Herodotus and others tllat the Bacchic Mysteries were in reality Egyptian, there exists strong probability that they came originally from India, and were Sivaic or Buddhistical. Cor6-Persephoneia was but the goddess Parasu-pani or Bhavani, the patroness of the Thugs, called also Gor6e ; and Zagreus is from Cltakra, a country ~xtending from ocean to ocean. If this is a Turanian or Tartar Story, we can easily recognize the "Horns" as the crescent worn by lama-priests : and translating god-names as merely sacerdotal designations, assume the whole legend to be based on a tale of Lama Succession and transmigration. The . Titans would then be the Daityas of India, who were opposed to the faith of the northern tribes ; and the title Dionysus but signify the god or chief-priest of Nysa, or Mount Meru. The whole story of Orpheus, the instituter or rather the reformer of tht nacchic rites, has a Hindu ring all through.


•

XVI Introd1tt-tz"on.

into the paternal substance, to he generated anew-.

He was thus destined to be again born, to succeed to

universal rule, establish the reign of happiness, and

release all souls from the d()minion of death.

The hypothesis of Mr. Taylor is the same as was

/ maintained by the philosopher Porphyry, that the

lMysteries constitute an illustration of the Platonic

philosophy. At first sight, this may be hard to be

lieve; but we must know that no pageant could

.u:.ld place so long, without an under-meaning. In

r Cleed, Herodotus asserts that "the rites called Or

( phic and Bacchic are in reality Egyptian and

\ Pythagorean." • The influence of the doctrines

of Pythagoras upon the Platonic system is general

ly acknowledge~. It is only important in that case

to understand the great philosopher correctly; and

we have a key to the doctrines and symbolism of

the Mysteries.

The first initiations.of the Eleusinia were called

~ Teldre or terminations, as denoting that the imper

fect and rudimentary period of generated life was

ended and purged off; and the candidate was de

nominated a mysta, a vailed or liberated person.

The Greater Mysteries completed the work; the

candidate was more fully instructed and disciplined,

* HERODOTUS: ii. 81.


Introduction. XVII

becoming an epopta or seer. He was now regarded ')

as having r!ceived the arcane principles_ of life. /

This was also the end sought by philosophy. The

sou_l :was]1~lie_ved to .be of co~_<;>site _nature, linked_

on the one side to the eternal world, ,emanating

f~om God, and so partaking of Divinity. On the_

o~ hand,)! wa~ l).l~~ allied to the phenomenal or_

e~ter':lal world, -~nd so liable t() be subjec!e<,l_t<;> pas

sion, lust, and the bondage of evils. This condition

is denominated generation; and is supposed to be a

kind of death to the higher form of life. Evil is in

herent in this condition ; and the soul dwells in the

body as in a prison or a grave. In this state, and

previous to the discipline of education and the mys

tical initiation, the _ rational or intellectual element,

which Paul denominates the spiritual, .:_is _asleep.

The earth-life is a dream rather than a reality.

Yet it has longings for a higher and nobler form of

life, and its affinities are on high. " All men yearn

after God," says Homer. The object of Plato is to . '

present to us the fact that there are in the soul cer- : I

tain ideas or principles, innate and connatural,. ,

which are not de'rived from without, but are an- i terior to all experience, and are developed and \

brought to view, but not produced by experience. (

These ideas are the most vital of all truths; and the ·.,

purpose of instruction and discipline is to make the : B I

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XVIII Introductz:on.

· individual conscious of them and willing to be led

.and inspired by them. The soul is purified or sep

arated from evils by knowledge, truth, expiations,

sufferings, and prayers. Our life is a discipline

and preparation for another state of being ; and

i resemblance to God is the highest motive of

\ action.• •

Proclus does not hesitate to identify the theologi

cal doctrines with the mystical dogmas of the Or-

. phic system. He says: "What Orpheus delivered

in hidden allegories, Pythagoras learned when he

was initiated into the Orphic Mysteries; and Plato

next received a perfect knowledge of them from the

Orphean and Pythagorean writings." /7 Mr. Taylor's peculiar style has been the subject

of repeated criticism; and his translations are not

accepted by classical scholars. Yet they have met

with favor at the hands of men capable of profound

and recondite thinking; and it must be conceded that

* Many of the early Christian writers were deeply imbued with the Eclectic or Platonic doctrines. The very forms of speech wer«; almost identical. One of the four Gospels, bearing the title "tU

.eQ1't/ing- 111 yo;,,.," was the evident product of a Platonist, and hardly seems in a considerable degree Jewish or historical. The epistles asctibed to Paul evince a great familiarity with the Eclectic philosophy and the peculiar symbolism of the Mysteries, as well as with the Mithraic notions that had penetrated and permeated the religious ideas of the western countries.


Introduction. XIX

he was endowed with a superior qualification,-that

of an intuitive perception of the interior meaning

of the subjects which he considered. Others may

have known more Greek, but he knew more Plato.

He devoted his time and means for the elucidation

and disseminating of the doctrines of the divine

philosopher; and has rendered into English not

only his writings, but also the works of other·

authors, wh,o affected the teachings of the great

master, that have escaped destruction at the hand

of Moslem and Christian bigots. For this labor

we can not be too gratefdl.

The present treatise has all the peculiarities of

style which characterize the translations. The

principal difficulties of these we have endeavored

to obviate-a labor which will, we trust, be not un

acceptable to readers. The book has been for some

time out of print ; and no later writer has en

deavored to replace it. There are many who still

<:herish a regard, almost amounting to veneration,

for the author; and we hope that this reproduction

of his admirable explanation of the nature and ob

Ject of the Mysteries will prove to them a welcome

undertaking. There is an increasing hiterest in

philosophical, mystical, and other antique literature,

which will, we believe, render our labor of some

value to a class of readers whose sympathy, good-


Introduc#on.

'\\ill, and fellowship we would gladly possess and

cherish. If we have added to their enjoyment, we

shall be doubly gratified.

A.W. NEW You, May I4t I875•


ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE AUTHOR'S EDITION •.

As there is nothing more celebrated than the

Mysteries of the ancients, so there is perhaps

nothing which has hitherto been less solidly known.

Of the truth of this observation, the liberal reader

will, I persuade myself, be fully convinced, from an

attentive perusal of the following sheets; in which

the secret meaning of the Eleusinian and Bacchic

Mysteries is unfolded, from authority the most re

spectable, and from a philosophy of. all others the

most venerable and august. The authority, indeed,

is principally derived from manuscript writings,

which are of course in the possession of but a few ;

but its respectability is no more lessened by its con

cealment, than the value of a diamond when se

cluded from the light. And as to the philosophy,

by whose assistance these Mysteries are developed,

it is coeval with the universe itself; and, however

its continuity may be broken by opposing systems,

it will make its appearance at different periods of


•

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XXII Advertisement.

time, as long as the sun himself shall continue to illuminate the world. It has, indeed, and may here

after, be violently assaulted by delusive opinions;

but the opposition will be just as imbecile as that of the waves of the sea against a temple built on a

rock, which majestically pours them back,

Broken and vanquish'd foaming to the main.


THE

ELEUSINIAN AND BACCHIC

MYSTERIES.

SECTION I.

DR WARBURTON, in his D1vine Legation of Moses, has ingeniously

proved, that the sixth book of Virgil's ..tEneid represents some of the dramatic exhibitions of the Eleusinian Mysteries ; but, at the same time, has utterly failed in attempting to unfold their latent meaning, and obscure, though important end. By the assistance, however, of the Platonic philosophy, I have been enabled to correct his errors, and to vindicate the wisdom* of antiquity from his aspersions

* The profounder esoteric doctrines of the ancients were denominated wisdfm, and afterward philosoplzy, and also the gnosis or knowledge. They related to the human soul, its

I


J.

2 Eleus£n£an and

by a genuine account of this sublime institution ; of which the following observations are designed as a comprehensive view.

In the first place, then, I shall present the reader with tWo superior authorities, who perfectly ~emcms~!1lte that a p~ _ of ~he shows (or dramas) con~isted in a representation of the infernal regions ; authorities which, though of the last consequence, were unknown to Dr. Warburton himself. The first of these is no less a person than the immortal --~i_ndar, in a fragment preserved by Clemens Alexandrinus : "AA.A.a Haz IIzvoapofi 7tepz -rwv ~v EA.wa-zvz pva--rqpzwv 'Aeyoov E7tupepez· OJ..fJzos, oa-nfi

zooov EHEtYa Hozva Ezfi V7tox.9-ovza, ozoEv J.lEY

fJzoy 'l'EAEV-rav, OZOEY OE ozofi OO'l'OY apxav."*

i. e. " But Pindar, speaking of the Eleusinian Mysteries, says: Blessed is he who, having

divine parentage, its supposed degradation from its high estate by becoming connected with " generation " or the physical world, its onward progress and restoration to God by regenerations, popularly supposed to be transmigrations, etc.-A. W.

* Stromata, book iii.

Digitized by Coogle

Bacchi& Mysteries. 3

seen those common concerns in the underworld, knows both the end of life and its divine origin from Jupiter." The other of these · is from Proclus in his Commentazy on Plato's Polz'tz'cus, who, speaking concerning the sacerdotal and symbolical mythology, observes, that from this mythology PlatC? himself establishes many of his own peculiar doctrines, " since in the Phado he\ venerates, with a becoming silence, the \ assertion delivered in the arcane discourses, that men are placed in the body as in a i prison, secured by a guard, and testifies, ' according to the mystic ceremonies, the dif- · ferent allotments of purified and unpurified souls z'n Hades, thez'r several conditz'ons, · and the three-forked path from the peculz'ar places where they were; and this was shown according to traditz'onary instz'tutz"ons ; every part of which z's full of a symbolz'cal representatz'on, as z'n a drama, and of a descriptz"on which treated of the ascendz'ng and descending ways, of the tragedies of Dz"onysus (Bacchus or Zagreus ), the crimes of the Titans, the three ways in Hades, and

..


• 4 E leusinian and

the wandering of everything of a similar /dnd."- H LJ71AOt 8E EY 4Jat8CUYZ rOY 'f'E EY

a?rppo,rott;, A.Eyo)lEYoY, ca?r; EY'f'lYt lfJPOVPlf E<JflEY

ot av~pcu?rot, t1zyr~ rr~ 7rpE7rOVt171 t1EfJcuv, Nat

rat; nA.erar; (lege Nat Nara rar; nA.era) J.lap

rvpoflEYot; rcuv 8zagJOpcuY A7leEcuY r71t; 1/JVX'l>

NENa~apJ.lEY71' n Nat aNa~aprov ez' tjaov

a?rtOVt171r;, Nat ra' re t1XEt1Et' av, Naz rat;

rpzoaovr; a1ro rcuv ovt1tcuY Nat rcuv (lege Nal

Nara rcuv), ?rarpzNcuY ~Et1)lCUY TENJ.lalpO)lEYO,. a

871 r71t; t1VJ.l/JOAtN71' a?raYra ~Ecuptat; Et1'f'l flEt1ra,

Nat rcuY ?rapa rozt; 1r0t71razt; ~pVAAOVJ.lEYCUY

aYo8cuv re Nat Na~oacuv, rcur re 8zovvt1zaNcuv

t1VV~71J.larcuv1 Nat rcuY rzraYlNCUY a)lapT'lJ.la

rcuY A.eyo)lEYcuv, Naz rcuv ev tjaov rpzo8cuY,

Nat r71t; ?rAaY'l'' Nat rcuY rozovrcuv a?raYrcuv." *

Having premised thus much, I now proceed to prove that the dramatic spectacles of the Lesser Mysteries t were designed by the ancient theologists, their founders, to sig11ify occultly the condition of the unpurified soul

* Commmtary m tlu Stat~sman of Plato, page 374· t The Lesser Mysteries were celebrated at Agrre ; and the per

sons there initiated were denominated MysttZ. Only such could be received at the sacred rites at Eleusis.


Bacch£c Mysteries. 5

invested with an earthly body, and envel~ oped in a material and physical nature ; or,\ in other words, to signify that such a soul in the present life might be said to die, as far as it is possible for a soul to die ; · and that on the dissolution of the present body, while · in this state of impurity, it would experience a death still more permanent and profound . . That the soul, indeed, till purified by phil- : ?Sophy,* suffers' death through its union with the body, was obvious to the philologist Macrobius, who, not penetrating the secret meaning of the ancients, concluded from hence that they signified nothing more than the present body, by their descriptions of the infernal abodes. But this is manifestly absurd ; since it is universally agreed, that . all the ancient theological poets and philosophers inculcated the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments in the most full and decisive terms ; at the same time occultly inti~ating that the death oj) the soul was nothing more than a profound unwn. w£th the ru£nous bonds of the body.

• Philosophy here relates to discipline of the life.


6 Eleus£n£an and

Indeed, if these wise men believed m a ~ture state of retribution, and at the same time considered a connection with the body

· as death of the soul, it necessarily follows, r that the soul's punishment and existence 1 hereafter are nothing more than a continu\, ation of its state at present, and a transmif gration, as it were, from sleep to sleep, and .l from dream to dream. But let us attend to the assertions of these divine men concerning the soul's union with a material nature. And to begin with the obscure and profound l;!_e_!_a_~~~!~S, speaking of souls unembodied: "We live their death, and _~e_

die their life." ZwpeY TOY exezvwy ~aYaToY,

Te~Y'Y/Xa}lEY oe TOY exezYGiJY {hoY. And Empedocles, deprecating the condition termed "generation,'' beautifully says of her •

The aspect changing with destruction dread, She makes the living pass into the tkad.

Ex per yap ~oooor trz~u rexpa, ez8e a,.uzf3oov.

And again, lamenting his connection with this corporeal world, he pathetically exclaims ~


Bacchi& Myster-ies. 7

For this I weep, for this indulge my woe, That e'er my soul such novel realms should know.

KAav6a re xat xoo1tv6a, t6oor a6vY71:ftta XODpor.

fl~!o, too, it is well known, considered the bod_y as the . sepulchre of the soul, and in the Cratylus concurs with the doctrine of / Orpheus, that !_he soul is punished through / its union with body. This was likewise the opinion of the celebrated Pythagorean, PhilQ.l.!!JS, as is evident from the following -remarkable passage in the Doric dialect, preserved by Clemens Alexandrinus in Stromat. book iii. "Map·wpeov-ra t5e Hat ot 1ralatot

.9eoloyot -re Hat )laY-ret;, a); t5ta -rzva; TZJ.I.OOpta;,

a tpVXa TrfJ t:IOiJ)laTt t:IVYEeWHTat, Hat Ha.9a1tEp

ev t:IOOJ.lan TOJ.I.Trp ttE.9a7tTi:n." z: e. "The ancient theologists and priests* also testify, that the soul is united with the body as if for the . . sake of punishment ; t and s~ is buried in 1 body as in a sepulchre." And lastly, Py- ·

• Grei:k }larru' mantas-more properly prophets, those filled by the prophetic mania or entheasm.

t More correctly-•: The soul is yoked to the body as if by way of punishment,'' as culprits were fastened to others or even to corpses. See Paul's Epistle to tlu Romans vii. 25


8 Eleusint"an and

thagoras himself confirms the above sentiments, when he beautifully observes, accord

, ing to Clemens in the same book, " that whatever we see when awake, ts death/ and when asleep, a dream." 8araro~ e<1rzr, oJ£ol1a

( eyepS'erre~ opEOJ-lEY' OH0<1a t5e evt5orre~, thrro~.

But that the mysteries occultly signified this sublime truth, that the soul by

. -- . --........ __ .. . _____ , . being merged in matter resides aniong the 't;Iead both here and hereafter, though it follows by a necessary sequence from the preceding observations, yet it is indisputably confirmed, by the testimony of the great and truly divine Plotinus, in Ennead 1., book viii.

I ,, When the soul," says he," has descended into . generation (from its first divine condition)

she partakes of evil, and is carried a great way into a state the · opposite of her first purity and integrity, to be entirely

· .. merged in wh-ich, -is nothing more tha1z to fall into dark mz're." And again, soon after: "The soul therefore dz'es as much as it is possible for the soul to die : and the death to her -is, wh£/e baptized or z'mmersed in the present


Bacch£c Myster£es. 9

body, to descend £nto matter,* and be wholly I subjected by £t; and after aepartz'ng thence to lie there tz'll £t shall art'se and turn #s face away from the abhorrent filth Th£s z's what t's meant by the fallt'ng asleep\ in Hades, of those who have come there." t)

• Greek tl.:\.77, matter supposed to contain all the principles the negative of life, order, and goodness.

t This passage doubtless alludes to the ancient and beautiful story of Cupid and Psyche, in which PsycM is said to fall asleep in Hades; and this through rashly attempting to behold corporeal beauty: and the observation of Plotinus will enable the profound and contemplative reader to unfold the greater part of the mysteries contained in this elegant fable. But, prior to Plotinus, Plato, in the seventh book of his R~ublic, asserts, that such as are unable in the present life to apprehend the idea of the good,

will descend to Hades after death, and fall asleep in its dark abodes. '0> aY #17 exv 8toptdad5:iat rep .:toyep, ano ro.-w allooY 1ttxYTOOY atpe.:\.ooy T1]Y rov aya5:iov t8eaY, "at {}{)/11tep ey JJ.axv 8ta navroov e.:\.eyxoov Sze;toov, JJ.t "ara So;ay alia "ar' ovdtaY 1tpo5:iVJJ.OVJJ.eYoS e.:teyxezv, ey nadt rovrot> anroon rep A.oyep 8ta1topev17r~t, ovre avro ro aya:!;oy ov8eY tp1]detS et8eYat roY ovroo> exoyra, ovre allo aya:!;oy ov8eY; a.:t.:t' et 1!1] ez8oo.:\.ov rtYoS etpanrerat, Soev ov" e1ttdr1]J1Tl etpanred5:iat; "at roY YVY f3toY oyezpono.:\.ovYra, "at vnvooroYra, 1tpzy eY5:ia8' eEepye65:iat; ezS <f.Sov nporepoY atpt"opeYoY re.:teoo> ent"ara8ap~aYeiY; i. e . .. He who is not able, by the exercise of his reason, to define the idea of the good, separating it from all other objects, and piercing, as in a battle, through every kind · of argument; e"udeavoring to confute, not according to opinion,


10 Eleusz'nian and

TtvO}lEYCf oE 1} }lE-ra}.:t?r/Jt~ av-rov. TzcpYnat yap

1taY'ta1taO'ZY EY 'tCf 'f1!~ aYO}lOZO'f1!'f0~ 'f01trp,

EY.9'a ov; Ez; aV'f1!Y Et; {Jop{JopOY O'HO'fEZYOY

EO'-raz 1tEO'OOY.-A1t0.9'Y1!0'HEt OVY, oo; tfVX'l . ay

.9-aYot • Hat o .9-ava-ro~ av-r~, Hat En EY TCb

O'OO}la-rt {JE{Ja1tTZO'}lEY'' EY VA~ EO'Tt xa-raovYat,

Hat 1tA1!0'5!t1!Yat av-r,~. Kat EeEA-.9-ovo-,~ ENEZ

HEzo-.9-az, Eoo; aYaopa}l~ Hat atpEA~ 1too~ 'f1!Y

OrflY EN 'fOV {Jop{Jopov. Kat TOV'fO E(J'Tt TO EY

but according to essence, and proceeding through all these dialectical energies with an unshaken reason ;-he who can not accomplish this, would you not say, that he neither knows the good itself, nor anything which is properly denominated good?' And would you not assert, that such a one, when he apprehends any certain image of reality, apprehends it rather through the medium of opinion than of science ; that in the present life he is sunk in sleep, and conversant with the delusions of dreams> and that before he is roused to a vigilant state, he will descend to Hade$, and be overwhelmed with a sleep perfectly profound."

Henry Davis translates this passage more critically: "Is not the case the sa111e with reference to the good? Whoever can not logically define it, abstracting the idea of tlu good from all others, and ·taking, as in a fight, one opposing argument after another, and can not proceed with unfailing proofs, eager to rest his case, not on the ground of opinion, but of true being,-such a

one knows nothing oi Ike guod itself, nor of any good whatever ~ and should he have attained to any knowledge of Ike guud, we must say that he has attained it by opinion, not by science ( t7tl6T1fJ.lrl); that he is sleeping and dreaming away his present life ; and before he is roused, will descend to Hades, and there be profoundly and perfectly laid asleep." vii. 14.


Bacch£c Mystedes. II

aoov el.9'ov-ra E1Wl«T« oap.9'ew. Here the I

reader may observe that the obscure doc-trine of the Mysteries mentioned by Plato in the Phado, that the unpurified soul in a future state lies immerged in mire, is beautifully explained ; at the same time that our assertion concerning their secret meaning is not less substantially confirmed.* In a similar manner the same divine philosopher, in his book on the Beautiful, Ennead. I. book vi., explains the fable of Narcissus as an emblem of one wh~ rushes to thecontemplation of sensible (phenomenal) forms as if they were ·perfect realities, when at the

. same time they are nothing more than like beautiful images appearing in water, fallacious and vain. " Hence," says he, "as N arcissus, by catching at the shadow, plunged himself in the stream and disappeared, so he who is captivated by beautiful bodies, and does not depart from their embrace,

• Pluzdo, 38. "Those who instituted the Mysteries for us ap-·1 pear to have intimated that whoever shall arrive in Hades un- ! purified and not initiated shall lie in mud ; but he who arrives there 1

purified and initiated shall dwell with the gods. For there are many bearers of the wand or thyrsus, but few who are inspired."

Digitized by Goog I e ,..

I

12 Eleust"nt"an and

is precipitated, not with his body, but with his soul, into a darkness profound and repugnant to intellect (the higher soul),* through which, remaining blind both here and in Hades, he associates with shadows." Tor avroY a, rp01tOY 0 EXOJ.lcYO'O 'f'(}{}Y .Ka.\ooy t!OOJ.la

roov, .Kat WI arptczt;, ov rrp t!OOJ.lan, r!l 8c f/JVX1J .Kara8vt1crat, ct'O t1.Korcwa .Kat arcp1tq rrp vrp

fiaS'q, cvS'a rvrp.\ot; cY tj8ov J.lcYoov, Nat ev

ravS'a .Ka.Kct t1Nzazt; t1VYct1rz. And what still I

farther confirms our exposition is, that mat-ter was considered by the Egyptians as a

, certain mire or mud. "The Egyptians," \ says Simplicius, "called matter, which they ·, symbolically denominated water, the dregs \ or sediment of the first life ; matter being,

as it were, a certain mire or mud. t /Jro Hat

AtyV1trtOZ rqv rqt; 1tpoorqt; ~(}{}"'' qv v8oop t1V}lfio.\t1((}{}t; c.KaA.ovv, V1tOt1raS'j.lqY rqv v.\qy cA.e

yov, ozov zA.vv .rzva ovt1av. So- that from all

*Intellect, Greek vov>, nous, is the higher faculty of the mind. It is substantially the same as the pmuma, or spirit, treated of in the New Testament ; and hence the term · .. intellectual," as used in Mr. Taylor's translations of the Platonic writers, may be pretty safely read as spiritual, by those familiar with the Chris-tian cultus. A. W.

t Physics of Aristotle

•


Bacchic Mysterz'es. 13

that has been said we may safely conclude with Ficinus, whose words are as express to our purpose as possible. "Lastly," says he, " that I may comprehend the opinion of the ancien~ theologists, on the state of the soul ....... .--- --after death, in a few words: they_ cons£dered, . as we have elsewhere asserted, thz'ngs div-ine ~s _!he only real#z'es, and that all others were only the £mages and shadows of truth. Hence they asserted that prudent men, who earnestly employed themselves in divine concerns, were above all others in a vigilant state. But that imprudent [~: e •

. without foresight] men, who pursued objects of a different nature, being laid asleep, as it were, were only engaged in the delusions of dreams; and that if t~ey happened to die in this sleep, before they were roused, they would be afflicted with similar and still more dazzling visions in a future state. And that as he who in this life pursued~

realities, would, after death, enjoy the high- · est truth, so he who pursued deceptions : would hereafter be tormented with fallacies and delusions in the extreme : as the one


~\ ,

14 Eleus£n£an and

J would be delighted with true objects of enjoyment, so the other would be tor

I mented with delusive semblances of reali\ ty."- Denique ut priscorum theologorum sententiam de statu animre post mortem paucis comprehendam: sola divina ( ut alias diximus) arbitrantur res veras existere, reliqua esse rerum verarum imagines atque umbras. Ideo prudentes homines, qui divinis incumbunt, prre ceteris vigilare. Imprudentes autem, qui sectantur alia, insomniis omnino quasi dormientes illudi, ac si in hoc somno priusquam expergefacti fuerint moriantur similibus post discessum et acrioribus visionibus angi. Et sicut eum qui in vita veris incubuit, post mortem summa veritate potiri, sic eum qui falsa sectatus est, fallacia extrema torqueri, ut ille rebus veris oblectetur, hie falsis vexetur simu-

lachris." *

But notwithstanding this importan! --~ruth was obscurely hinted by the Lesser Myst-eries, we must not suppose that it was gen-. . - - --------

* FICINUS: De ImmiJrlat. Anim. book xviii.

t .• :..,..t ,y I

Bacch£c Mysteries. IS

·~rally known even to the initiated persons themselves : for as individuals of almost·, all descriptions were admitted to these\ rites, it would have been a ridiculous prostitution . to disclose to the multitude a) theory so abstracted and sublime.* It was sufficient to instruct these in the doctrine _ ... --- - · ~ .

of a future state of rewards and punish-ments, and in the means of re~uming to the principles from which they originally fell : for this last piece of information was

*We observe in the N~w Tutament a like disposition on the part of Jesus and Paul to classify their doctrines as esoteric and exoteric," the Mysteries of the kingdom of God" for the apostles, and " parables" for the multitude. "We speak wisdom," says Paul, "among them that are perfect" (or initiated) etc. I C01inthians, ii. Also Jesus declares: "It is given to you, to know the Mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given ; therefore I speak to them in parables: because they seeing, see not, and hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand."-MatiMw xiii., n-13. He also justified the withholding of the higher and interior knowledge from the untaught and ill-disposed, in the mem• orable Sermon 011 IM Motmt.-Mattluw vii. :

... Give ye not that which is sacred to the dogs, Neither cast ye your pearls to the swine ; For the swine will tread them under their feet And the dogs will turn and rend you."

This same division of the Christians into neophytes and perfect. appean to have been kept up for centuries ; and Godfrey Higgina asserts that it is maintained in the Roman Church.-A. W.


16 Eleus£n£an and

~ccording to Plato in the Phado, the ultimate design of the Mysteries ; and the former · is necessarily inferred from the present discourse.'\ Hence the ·reason why it was obvious to none but the Pythagorean and Platonic philosophers, who derived their theology from Orpheus himself,* the ·original founder of these sacred institutions ; and ~hy . we meet with no information in this particular in any writer prior to Plotinus_; as he - -!was the first who, having penetrated the

- 7

profound interior wisdom of antiquity, delivered . it to posterity without the concealments of mystic symbols and fabulous narratives. l\.

VIRGIL NOT A PLATONIST. ·

Hence too, I think, we may infer, with the greatest probability, that this recondite meaning of the mysteries was not known

* HERODOTUS, ii. 51, St. " What Orpheus delivered in hidden allegories Pythagoras

leamc:d when he was initiated into the Orphic Mysteries; and Plato next received a knowledge of them from the Orphic and Pythagorean writings."


Bacchz"c Mysterz"es. I7

even to Virgil himself, who has so elegantly described their external form ; for notwith· standing the traces of Platonism which are to be found in the .£1tez'd, nothing of any great depth occurs throughout the whole, except what a superficial reading of Plato and the dramas of the Mysteries might easi· ly afford. But this is not perceived by mod· ern readers, who, entirely unskilled them· selves in Platonism, and fascinated by the charms of his poetry, imagine him to be deeply knowing in a subject which with he was most likely but slightly acquainted This opinion is still farther strengthened by considering that the doctrine delivered in his Eclogues is perfectly Epicurean, which was the fashionable philosophy of the Augus· tan age ; and that there is no trace of Plato· nism in any other part of his works but the present book, which, containing a representation of the Mysteries, was necessarily obliged to display some of the principal tenets of this philosophy, so far as they illustrated and made a part of these mystic exhibitions, However, on the supposition that this book

2


18 E lezesZ:nZ:an a1zd .

presents us with a faithful view of some part of these sacred rites, and this accompanied with the utmost elegance, harmony, and purity of versification, it ought to be considered as an invaluable relic of antiquity, and a precious monument of venerable mysticism, recondite wisdom, and theological information.* This will be sufficiently evident from what has been already delivered, by considering some of the beautiful descriptions of this. book in their natural order ; at the same time that the descriptions themselves will corroborate the present elucidations.

In the first place, then, when he says,

-- facilis descensus Averno. Noctes atque dies patet atra janua ditis: Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras, Hoc opus, hie labor est. Pauci quos requus amavit Jupiter, aut ardens evexit ad rethera virtus, Dis geniti potuere. Tenent media omnia silvae, Cocytusque sinu labens, circumvenit atro -- t

* Andmt Symbol- Wurskip, page II, note. t ,Pavidson's Translation.-" Easy is the path that leads down.

to hell ; grim Pluto's gate stands open night and day: but to re. trace one•s· steps, and escape to the upper regions, this is a work,. this is a task. Some few, whom favoring Jove loved, or illustrious.



is it not obvious, froni the preceding explanation, that by A vern us, in this place, and the dark gates of Pluto, we must understand a corporeal or external nature, the descent into which is, indeed, at all times obvious and easy, but to recall our steps, and ascend into the upper regions, or, in other words, to separate the soul from the body by the purifying discipline, is indeed a mighty work, and a laborious task? For a few only, the favorites of heaven, that is, born with the true philosophic genius,* and whom ardent virtue has elevated to a disposition and capacity for divine contemplation, have been enabled to accomplish the arduous design. But when he says that all the middle regions are covered with woods, this likewise plainly intimates a material nature ; the word s£lva, as is well known, being used by ancient writers to signify matter, and implies nothing more than that the passage leading to the

virtue advancc:d to heaven, the sons of the gods, have effected it. Woo<b cover all the intervening space, and Cocytus, gliding with. his black, windin~ ftood, surrounds it."

• I. e., a disposition to investigate for the purpose of eliciting. truth, and reducing it to practice.


,r

20 Eleus£n£an and

IJarathrum [abyss] of body, t: e. into pro. found darkness and oblivion, is through the medium of a material nature ; and this medium is surrounded by the bhck bosom of Cocytus,* that is, by bitter weeping and lamentations, the necessary consequence of the soul's union with a nature entirely foreign to her own. So that the poet in this particular perfectly corresponds with Empedocles in the line we have cited above, where he exclaims, alluding to this union,

For this I wup, for this indulge my woe, That e'er my soul such novel realms should know.

In the next place, he thus describes the .cave, through which ..tEneas descended to the infernal regions:

Spelunca alta fuit, vastoque immanis hiatu, Scrupea, tuta lacu nigro, memorumque tenebris: Quam super haud ullre poterant impune volantes Tendere iter pennis: talis sese halitus atris Faucicus effundens supera ad convexa ferebat: Unde locum Graii dixerunt nomine Aomum-- t

* Cocytus, lamentation, a river in the Underworld. t Davidson's Translation.-" There was a cave profound and

hideous, with wide yawning mouth, stony, fenced by a black lake


Bacclzic Mysteries. 2'1

Does it not afford a beautiful representation of a corporeal nature, of which a cave, defended with a black lake, and dark woods, is an obvious emblem ? For it occultly reminds us of the ever-flowing and obscure condition of such a nature, which may be said

To roll incessant with impetuous speed,

Like some dark river, into Matter's sea.

Nor is it with less propriety denominated Aornus, z: e. destitute of birds, or a winged nature; for on account of its native sluggishness and inactivity, and its merged condi-

and the gloom of woods; over which none of the flying kind were

able to wing their w&.y unhurt ; such exhalations issuing from its

grim jaws ascended to the vaulted skies; for which reason the Greeks called the place by the name of Aornos" (without birds).

Jacob Bryant says : " All fountains were esteemed sacred, but

especi2lly those which had any preternatural quality and abounded

with exhalations. It was an universal notion that a divine energy

proceeded from these effluvia ; and that the persons who resided

in their vicinity were gifted with a prophetic quality. • . • The Ammonians styled such fountains A in Omp!t!, or fountains of the

oracle; OJ.ltp7J, omp!t!, signifying • the voice of God.' These terms

the Greeks contracted to NVJ.ltp7J, numplu, a nymph."-Anciml Mythology, vol. i. p. 276.

The Delphic oracle was above a fissure, gounous, or bocca infe

riore, of the earth, and the pythoness inhaled the vapors.- A. W.


22 Eleusinian and

tion, being situated in the outmost extremity of things, it is perfectly debile and languid, incapable of ascending into the regions of reality, and exchanging its obscure and degraded station for one every way splendid and divine. The propriety too of sacrificing, previous to his entrance, to Night and Earth, is obvious, as both these are emblems of a corporeal nature.

In the verses which immediately follow,-

Ecce autem, primi sub !imina solis et ortus,

Sub pedibus mugire solum, et juga crepta movere

Silvarum, visaque canes ululare per umbram,

Adventante dea -- *

we may perceive an evident allusion to the earthquakes, etc., attending the descent of the soul into body, mentioned by Plato in the tenth book of his Republic; t since the

* "So, now, at the first beams and rising of the sun, the earth under the feet begins to rumble, the wooded hills to quake, and

dogs were seen howling through the shade, as the goddess came hither--"

t R~public. x, 16. "After they were laid asleep, and midnight

was approaching, there was thunder and earthquake; and they

were, thence on a sudden carried upward, some one way, and

some another, approaching to the region of generation like stars."

Digitized by Coogle

Bacch£c Myster-ies. 23

1apse of the soul, as we shall see more fully ·hereafter, was one of the. important truths which these Mysteries were intended to reveal. And the howling dogs are symbols of material* demons, who are thus denominated by the Mag£an Oracles of Zoroaster, -on account of their ferocious and malevolent dispositions, ever baneful to the feliCity of :the human soul. And hence Matter herself is represented by Synesius in his first Hymn, with great propriety and beauty, as barking at the soul with devouring rage : for thus he sings, addressing himself to the Deity :

Maxap o~ rz~ f:Jopov v.\a~ IIpocpvyOiJY v.\ay,ua, xat ya~ Ava6v~, a.\,uan xovcp~ Ixvo~ e> ~eov rzrazvu.

Which may be thus paraphrased :

Blessed ! thrice blessed ! who, with winged speed,

From Hyle"s t dread voradous barking flies,

*Material demons are a lower grade of spiritual essences that

.are capable of assuming forms which make them perceptible by "the physical senses.-A. W.

t Hyle or Matter. All evil incident to human life, as is here

-shown, was supposed to originate from the connection of the soul

"to material subst~nce, the latter being regarded as the receptacle

Digitized by Coogle

Eleust'nian and

And, leaving Earth's obscurity behind, By a light leap, directs his steps to thee.

And that material demons actually appeared to the initiated previous to the lucid visions of the gods themselves, is evident from the following passage of Proclus in his' manuscript Commentary on the first A lc£b£ades: EY -rat' ayto-ra-rat' T'G:JY nle-ruw 1tp0 T''f' 8tOV 1tapOtJ(fta' Oat)JOYGOY X-9-0YtG:JY EH-

polat 1tpOtpatvOYT'at, H-at a1tO 'TGOY axpaY'TOiJY

aya-9-aov Et' T''fY VA'fY 1tpOH-aAOV)JEYat. f. e.

1 " In the most interior sanctities of the M ys-teries, before the presence of the god, the

/ rushing forms of earthly demons appear, and

1\ call the attention from the immaculate good ~_ to matter." And Pletho (on the Oracles),

expressly asserts, that these spectres appeared in the shape of dogs.

After this, .tEneas is described as proceeding to the infernal regions, through profound night and darkness :

Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram, Perque domos Ditis vacuas, et inania regna.

of everything evil. But why the soul is thus immerged and punished is nowhere explained.-A. W.


BacchZ:c Mysteries.

Quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna Est iter in silvis: ubi crelum condidit umbra Jupiter, et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem. "'

And this with the gr~atest propriety ; for t!!~ _Mysteries, as is well known, were celeb~~ by_ nigl1t; and in_ the RepubHc- of Plato, as cited above, souls are described as f~!i?g into the estate of generation at mid-:~g!l~; _ this period being peculiarly accommo- _ dated to the darkness and oblivion of a corporeal nature ; and to this circumstance the nocturnal celebration of the Mysteries doubtless alluded.

In the next place, the following vivid description presents itself to our view :

Vestibulum ante ipsum, primisque in faucibus Orci Luctus, et ultrices posuere cubilia Curre : Pallentesque habitant morbi, tristisque senectus, Et Metus, et mala suada Fames, ac turpis egestas ;

* "They went along, amid the gloom under the solitary night, through the shade, and through the desolate halls and empty realms of Dis [Pluto or Hades]. Such is a journey in the woods beneath the unsteady moon with her niggard light, when Jupiter has enveloped the sky in shade, and the black Night has taken from all objects their color.

Digitized by Goog le

Eleusinian and

Terribiles visu form~ ; Lethumque Laborque: Tum consanguineus Lethi Sopor et mala mentis Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine bellum Ferreique Eumenidum thalami, et Discordia demens, Vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis. In medio ramos annosaque brachia pandit Ulmus opaca ingens : quam sedem somnia vulgo Vana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus ha!rent. Multaque prreterea variarum monstra ferarum: Centauri in foribus stabulant, Scyllreque biformes, Et centumgeminus Briareus, ac bellua Lernre, Horrendum stridens, fiammisque armata Chimrera, Gorgones Harpyireqne, et formo tricorporis umbrre. *

Arid surely it is impossible to draw a more. lively picture of the maladies with which a

"' "Before the entrance itself, and in the first jaws of Hell, Grief and vengeful Cares have placed their couches; pale Diseases inhabit there, and sad Old Age, and Fear, and Want, evil goddess of persuasion, and unsightly Poverty-forms terrible to contemplate ! and there, too, are Death and Toil ; then Sleep, akin to Death, and evil Delights of mind; and upon the opposite threshold are seen death-bringing War, and the iron marriage-couches of the Furies, and raving Discord, with her viper-hair bound with gory wreaths. In the midst, an Elm dark and huge expands its boughs and aged limbs ; making an abode which vain Dreams are said to haunt, and under whose every leaf they dwell. Besides all these, are many monstrous apparitions of various wild beasts. The Centaurs harbor at the gates, and double-formed Scyllas, the hundred-fold Briareus, the Snake of Lerna;hissing dreadfully, and Chimrera armed with fiames, the Gorgons and the Harpies, and the shades of three-bodied form."


Bacchic Mysteries.

material nature is connected; of the soul's dormant condition through its union with body; and of the various mental diseases to which, through such a conjunction, it becomes unavoidably subject; for this description contains a threefold division ; represent- , ing, in the first place, the external evil with , which this material region· is replete ; in the second place, ~ntimating that the life of the ;r soul when merged in the body is nothing but a dream; and, in the third place, under the dis- J. guise of multiform and terrific monsters, exhibiting the various vices of our irrational and sensuous part. Hence Empedocles, in perfect conformity with the first part of this description, calls this material abode, or the realms Of generation,- a-rEp1tEa xwpov, * a "joyleSS region,"

"Where slaughter, rage, and countless ills reside;"

and into which those who fall,

* This and· the other citations from Empedocles are to be found in the book of Hierocles on Tlte Goldm Verus of Pythagoras.


:z8 Eleusz"nz"an and

"Through At6's meads and dreadful darkness stray."

----Ar11s --ara A.~zpc»ra r~ 1Caz d1CoroS 17A.ad1COVdzY.

And hence he justly says of such a soul. that

"She flies from deity and heav'nly light, ', "To serve mad Discm in the realms of night."

---qwyas ~~o~~r. "a' aA.,r,s, Ntt"~' JltlZYOJl~Ylp 1CidVYOS.----

Where too we may observe that the Dz'scord£a demens of Virgil is an exact translation of the Nezxer ·J.laWOJ.lEYrp of Empedocles.

In the lines too which immediately succeed, the sorrows and mournful mt'serz"es attending the soul's union with a material riature, are beautifully described.

Hinc via, Tartarei qure fert Acherontis ad undas ; Turbidus hie creno vastaque voragine gurges lEstuat, atque omnem Cocyto eructat arenam. *

And when Charon calls out to ....Eneas to

* " Here is the way which leads to the surging billows of Hell (Acheron); here an abyss turbid boils up with loathsome mud and vast whirlpools, and vomits all its quicksand into Cocytus."


Baccht"c Mysteries.

desist from entering any farther, and tells him,

" Here to reside delusive shades delight ; " For nought dwells here but sleep and drowsy night."

Umbrarum hie locus est, Somni Noctisque soporae-

nothing can more aptly express the condi·tion of the dark regions of body, into which the soul, when descending, meets with no: thing but shadows and drowsy night : and by persisting in her course, is at length lulled into profound sleep, and becomes a true inhabitant of the phantom-abodes of the dead.

JEneas having now passed over the Stygian lake, meets with the three-headed monster Cerberus,* the guardian of these infernal abodes:

Tandem trans Buvium incolumis vatemque virumque Informi limo glaucaque exponit in ulva.

• The presence of Cerberus in Grecian and Roman descriptions o£ the Underworld shows that the ideas of the poets and mythologists were derived, not only from Egypt, but from the Brahmans of the far East. Yama, the lord of the Underworld, is attended by his dog Kar/Jaru, the spotted, styled .also Triltasa, the threeheaded.


30 Eleus£n£an and

Cerberus haec ingens latratu regna trifauci Personal, adverso recubans immanis in antro. *

By Cerberus we must understand the discriminative part of the soul, of which a dog,

· on account of its sagacity, is an emblem ; and I the three heads signify the triple distinction of this part, into the intellective [or intuitional], cogitative [or rational], and opinion-

; ative powers.-With respectt to the three \ kinds of persons described as situated on the ) borders of the infernal realms, the poet 1 doubtless intended by this enumeration to \represent to us the _three most re~arka~le

* "At length across the river safe, the prophetess and the man • he lands upon the slimy strand, upon the blue sedge. Huge Cerberus makes these realms [of death) resound with barking from his three-fold throat, as he lies stretched at vrodigious length in the opposite cave."

t In the second edition these terms are changed to dianoidic and doxastit: words which we can not adopt, as they are not accepted English terms. The nous, intellect or spirit, pertains to the higher or intuitional part of the mind; the dianoia or understanding to the reasoning faculty, and the doxa, or opinion

·forming power, to the faculty of investigation.-Plotinus, accepting this theory of mind, says: " Knowledge has three degreesopinion, science, and illumination. The means or instrument of the first is reception ; of the second, dialectic ; cf the third, intuition."-A. W.



~haracters, who, though not apparently de. serving of punishment, are yet each of them similarly immerged in matter, and conse~

quently require a similar degree of purifica- .· tion. The persons described are, as is well known, first, the souls of infants snatched away by untimely ends; secondly, ~h as ace condemned to death unjustly ; and, thirdly;i~~se . who, weary of their lives, become gl:!ilty of _suicide. And with respect to the first of these, or infants, their connection with a material nature is obvious. The sec· ond sort, too, who are condemned to death unjustly, must be supposed to represent the souls of men who, though innocent of one crime for which they were wrongfully punished, have, notwithstanding, been guilty of many crimes, for w:hich they are ~~ceiving

proper chastisement in Hades, z: e. through a profound union with a material nature.* And the third sort, or .. suicides, though ap·

*Hades, the Underworld, supposed by classical students to be

the region or estate. of departed souls, it will have been noticed, is regarded by Mr. Taylor and other Platonists, as the human body, which they consider to be the grave and place of punishment of the soul.-A. W.


32 E leus£n£an atzd

parently separated from the body, have only exchanged one place for another of similar nature; since conduct of this kind, according to the arcana of divine philosophy, instead of separating the soul from its body,__Q_I!}y restores it to a condition (perfectly corre~~.!!_dent to its former inclinations and habits, lamentations and woes. But if we . ~~~~ine this affair more profoundly, we shall find that these three characters are justly placed in the same situation, because the reason of punishment is in each equally obscure. For is it not a a just matter of doubt, why the souls of infants should be punished ? And

is it not equally dubious and wonderful why those who have been unjustly condemned to death in one period of existence should be punished in another ? And as to suicides, Plato in his Ph(Edo says, that the prohibition of this crime in the a7topprrra (aporrheta) *

* AjiJrrMfa, the arcane or confidential disclosures made to the

candidate undl!rgoing initiation. In the Eleusinia, these were

made by the Hierophant, and enforced by him from the Book of Interpretation, said to have con•isted of two tablets of stone.

This was the pelriJma, a name usually derived from jt'lra, a rock,



is a profound doctrine, and not easy to be understood.* Indeed the true cause why the two first of these characters are in Hades, can only be ascertained from the fact of a prior state of existence, in surveying which, the latent justice of punislvtlerit will be manifestly revealed ; the apparent inconsistencies in the administration of Providence fully reconciled; and the doubts concerning the wisdom . of its proceedings entirely dissolved. And as to the last of these, or suicides, since the reason of their punishment, and why an action of this kind is in general highly atrocious, is extremely mystical and obscure, the following solution of this difficulty will, no doubt, be gratefully received by the Platonic reader, as the. whole of it is no where

• or possibly from ,nD. peter, an interpreter. See II. Corinthians,

xii. 6-8.-A. W.

* PhO!do, 16. "The instruction in the doctrine given in the Mysteries, that we human beings are in a kind of prison, and

that we ought not to free ourselves from it or seek to escape,

appears to me difficult to be understood, and not easy to apprehend. The gods take care of us, and we are theirs."

Pl<'tinus, it will he remembered, perceived by the interior

faculty that Porphyry contemplated suicide, and admonished

him accordingly.-A. W.

3


34 . Eleus£n£an and

else to be found but in manuscript. Olympiodorus, then, a most learned and excellent commentator on Plato, in his commentary on that part of the Phtedo where Plato speaks of the prohibition of suicide in the aporrheta, observes as follows : "The argument which Plato employs in this place against suicide is derived from the Orphic mythology, in which four kingdoms are celebrated : the first of Uranus [Ouranos] (Heaven), whom Kronos or Saturn assaulted, cutting off the genitals of his father.* But after Saturn, Zeus or Jupiter succeeded to the government of the world, having hurled his father into Tartarus. And after Jupiter, Dionysus or Bacchus rose to light, who, according to report, was, through the insidious treachery of Hera or Juno, tom in pieces by the Titans, by whom he was surrounded, and who afterwards tasted his flesh : but Jupiter, enraged at the deed, hurled his thunder at the guilty offenders and consumed

* In the Hindu mythology, from which this symbolisUt is evidently derived, a deity deprived thus of the lingam or phallus, parted with his divine authority.


Bacchz"c Mysterz"es. 35

them to ashes. Hence a certain matter being formed from the ashes or sooty vapor of the smoke ascending from their burning bodies, out of this mankind were produced: It is unlawful therefore to destroy ourselves,

- not as the words of Plato seem to import, because w~_ 3.1:e in th_e bo<}y, as in prison. secured by a guard; (for this is evident, and Plato would not have called such an assertion arcane) but because our body is Dionysiacal,* or of the nature of Bacchus : for we are a part of him, since we are 1 composed from the ashes, or sooty \

I

vapor of the Titans who tasted his I flesh. Socrates, therefore, as if fearful of disclosing the arcane part of this narration, relates nothing more of the fable than that we are placed as in a prison secured by a guard : but the interpreters re- . late the fable openly." Kaz e~n ro pv::Jzxov

£7ttXetPrtJ.l« rowvrov. IIapa rep Op<pez reo-o-ape~ fiao-z'Aezaz 7tapaozoovraz. IIpooTTf per, , rov Ovpavov, ,y 0 Kpovo~ ozeoel;aro, £1tTej.tGJY T«

* From Dionysus, the Greek name of Bacchus, and usually s~ translated.


Eleus£nian a1zd

az8ota TOV traTpo~. METa O'! TOY KpoYOY1 o Zev~ efJatnl.ev(ftY NaTaTaprapr..:J(fa~ roY tra

npa. EtTa roY Ata 8ze8etaro o AzoYV(fo,, OY

~a(ft Nar' ttrtfJovl.'IY T'l~ 'Hpat; TOV~ trtpt avrov

TtraYat; (ftraparrEtY1 Nat Tr..:JY (fapNr..:JY avrou

.atroyevt(f!!fat. Kat rovrov~ opyt(f!!fttt; o Zev~ tNtpaVYr..:J(ft1 Nat EN r'lt; at!!fal.,~ rr..:JY aT j.lr..:JY

"rOilY aYa8o!!fEYrr..:JY ee aVrr..:JY1 Vl.'l' ytYOJ.lfY1!~

ytYt(f!!fat TOV~ aY!!fpr..:Jtrov,. Ov ott OVY etaya

ytzY i,pa' eavrov,, ovx on r..:Jt; ooNtt leyezy i,

Attzt;, OtOrt tY TIYl oe,prp t(fj.lfY Tt:p (fr..:Jj.lart•

TOVTO yap 0'/l.OY f~rt1 Nat OVN aY TOVTO atrop

fl'/TOY tl.eye, all.' on ov oez etayayttY T,pa~ ;avTov~ r..:Jt; TOV (fr..:Jj.laTot; .f,pr..:JY OtOYV(fzaNov

OYTO,. J.lEPO' yap avrov t(fptY1 etye EN T'l'

.az!!fal.'l' rr..:JY TtTaYr..:JY (fVyNttpe!!fa yev(fape

Yr..:JY Tr..:JY (fapNGiiY TOVrOV. '0 J.lfY OVY ~GiiNpa

"T'/t; epyrp TO atrOPP'!TOY ottNYV~, Tov pv!!fov

.OVOEY trl.EOY trpO(frt!!f'l(ft TOV Gilt; EY 'f'lYt tppovpa

-E(fj.ltY. 'Ot Of ee,y,Tat TOY pv!!foy trpo(fn!!fe

at:flY etr..:J!!ftY. After this he beautifully observes, "That these four governments signify the different gradations of virtues, according to which our soul contains the symbols <>f all the qualities, both contemplative and purifying, social and ethical · for it either



operates according to the theoretic or contemplative virtues, the model of which is the government of Uranus or Heaven, that we may begin from on high ; and on this account Uranus (Heaven) is so called trapa

rov ra arro optfr, from beholding the things above : Or it lives purely, the exemplar of which is the Kronian or Satumian kingdom ; and on this account Kronos is named as Koro-nous, one who perceives through himself. Hence he is said to devour his own offspring, signifying the conversion of_ him~~_( into his own substance:-_ or it operates according to the social virtues, the symbol of which is the government of Jupiter. Hence ~~tel"_ is styled the Dem£urgus, as op~rating about secondary things :-o< it--operates according to both the . ethical). and physical virtues, the symbol of which is the kingdom of Bacchus; and on this account he is fabled to be tom in pieces by] the Titans, because the virtues are not cut off by each other." Awvnorraz (lege azrzr-rorraz) oe -rov~ otaqJEpov~ fJa5:1p.ov~ -rror ape-

-rror xa5:1' a~ q qp.enpa f/JVX'l t:fvp.fJolta exovt:fa

. ,......., Digitized by Goog I e

Eleusinian and

1ra~G1Y -rcur apercur, -rcur n 57ecupTJnNcur, N«r. Na57apnNcuY1 Nat 7rOAtrtNCtJY1 Nat TJ57tNCtJY. •H

yap Nara -ra~ 57ecupTJnNa~ erepyet r.Jr 7rapa

oezy pa r, T'OV d vpaYOV {Jatnleza1 tYa aYctJ57£Y

apeape57a, ozo Nat ovparo~ EtPTJYat 1rapa -rou

ra arcu opcfY· 'H Na57aprtNCtJ~ C.TJ, 1,~ 7rapaoezypa r, Kporeza fJa~zleza, ozo Nat Kporo~ El

PTJ'Z'at ozor o Noporov> · rz> cur oza -ro eavror

Opav. ~zo Nat. xaTa1tt.YEtY Ta ozxeza yEYY1f

para leye-rat, cu> avro> 1rpo~ eav-ror E7rt~rpe

ipCtJY. •H Nara -ra> 1rolznNa~ r.Jr ~vpfJolor, ,;

rov L1to> fJa~zleza, ozo Nat OTJJ.ltovpyo~ o Zev>,

CtJ) 7rEpt ra OEV'Z'Epa EYEpycur. H NaTa 'Z'a~ TJ57t

Na> Nat lpV~tNa> ape-ra>, r.Jr ~vrfJolor, T, -rov

L1tOYV~OV fJa~tleza, OLO Nat ~7raparnrar., ozon , ovN arraNolov57ov~w allTJlat> ai ape-rat.

And thus far Olympiodorus; in which passages it is necessary to observe, that as the Titans are the artificers of thi11gs, and stand next in order to their creations, men are said to be compose4 from their fragments, because the human soul has a partial life capable of proceeding to the most extreme division united with its proper nature. And while the soul is in a state of servitude to the body, she lives confined, as it were, in


Bacchic · Mysterz"es. 39

bonds, through the dominion of this Tz"tan-\ ica! life. We may observe farther concern- \

I

ing these dramatic shows of the Lesser M ys- !

teries, that as they were intended to rep- i resent the condition of the soul while I subservient to the body, we shall find that ·. a liberation from this servitude, through the p.urifying disciplines, potencies that separate from evil, was what . the wisdom of the ancients intended to signify by the descent of Hercules, Ulysses, etc., into Hades, and their speedy return ~rom its dark abodes. " Hence," . says Proclus, " Hercules being purified by J

sacred z"nz"Hatz"ons, obtained at length a per- . feet . establishment among the gods :" * that / is, well knowing the dreadful condition of . his soul while in captivity. to a corporeal •, nature, and purifying himself by practice of the cleansing virtues, of which certain purifications in the mystic ceremonies were sym- :' bolical, he at length was freed from the! bondage of matter, and ascended beyond her . reach. On this account, it is said of him/ that

• Commmtary on tk Statesman of Plato,j . .J8z.

Digitized by Goog I e .-·

40 Eleus£nian and

"He dragg'd the three-mouth'd dog to upper day;"

intimating that by temperance, continence. ·and the other virtues, he drew upwards the intuitional, rational, and opinionative part of the soul And as to Theseus, who is represented as suffering eternal punishment in Hades, we must consider him too as an allegorical character, of which Proclus, in the above-cited admirable work, gives the foling beautiful explanation : " Theseus and Pirithous," says he, " are fabled to have abducted Helen, and descended to the infernal regions, i. e. they were lovers both of mental and visible beauty. Afterward one of these (Theseus), on account of his magnanimity. was liberated by Hercules from Hades; but the other (Pirithous) remained there, because he could not attain the difficult height of divine contemplation." This account, indeed, of Theseus, can by no means be reconciled with Virgil's :

--- sedet, reternumque sedebit, Infelix Theseus. *

* " There sits, and forever shall sit, the unhappy Theseus.•



Nor do I see how Virgil can be reconciled with himself, who, a little before this, represents him as liberated from Hades. The conjecture therefore of H yginus is · most probable, that Virgil in this particular committed an oversight, which, had he lived, he would doubtless have detected, and amended. This is at least much more probable than the opinion of Dr. Warburton, that Theseus was a living character, who once entered into the Eleusinian Mysteries by force, for which he was imprisoned upon earth, and afterward punished in the infernal realms. For if this was the case, why is not Hercules also represented as in punishment ? and this with much greater reason, since he actually dragged Cerberus from Hades; whereas the fabulous descent of Theseus was attended with no real, but only intentional, mischief. Not to mention that Virgil appears to be the only writer of antiquity who condemns this hero to an eternity of pain.

Nor is the secret meaning of the fables concerning the punishment of impure souls


42 E leus£n£an and

less impressive and profound, as the following extract from the manuscript commentary of Olympiodorus on the Gorgias of Plato will abundantly affirm : - " Ulysses," says he, "descending into Hades, saw, among others, Sisyphus, and Tityus, and Tantalus. Tityus he saw lying on the earth, and a vulture devouring his liver; the liver signifying that

I'

he lived solely according to the principle of cupidity in his nature, and through this was indeed internally prudent ; but the earth signifies that his disposition was sordid. But Sisyphus, living under the dominion of ambition and anger, was employed in continually rolling a stone up an eminence, because it perpetually descended again ; its descent implying the vicious government of himself; and his rolling the stone, the hard, refractory, and,· as it were, rebounding, condition of his life. And, lastly, he saw Tantalus extended by the side of a lake, and that there was a tree before him, with abundance of fruit on its branches, which he desired to gather, but it vanished from his view ; and this indeed indicates, that he lived under the dominion



of phantasy ; but his hanging over the lake, and in vain attempting tb drink, implies the elusive, humid, and rapidly-gliding condition of such a life." •o 06v(J(Jev' H:anA.ifc.w u' tJoov, o1oE TOY ~l(JVcpoY, Hat TOY TlTVoY, H:az

'TOY TaYTaAOY. Kaz TOY }lEY TlTVOY, E7tl 'f'17'

Y17' EtDE H:Etp.EYOY, H:al on TO T,7tap avTov T,(JiftEY

yvlfl. To }lEY OVY T,7tap (Jq}lalYEt on H:a'Ta -ro

~1ttifvp.qnH:OY J.lEPO' EC,q(JE1 H:al oza 'f'OVT'O E(JUJ

cppoyrzC,Ero. 'H 06 Y17 . (Jqp.alYEZ TO xifoyzoy

avrov cppoYqp.a. 0 oE ~z(Jvcpo,, H:ara ro cplAD

np.oY, H:at ifvp.oEtoE' C,q(Ja' EHVAZE -roY A.zifoy,

Hal 1raA.zv H:at'EcpEpEY, E7tElOE . 7tEpl aura H:arap

pEl, o H:aH:UJ' 7tOAt'TEVOJ.l~Yo,. Azifoy DE EH:VAtE,

oza TO (JH:AqpoY1 H:at aYf'lT'V1tOY 1'1'/, aVTOV C,wq,.

ToY oE TaYrall.oY ElOEY EY ll.tp.Y (lege ll.zp.y~)

Hat on EY oEYopoz' q(JaY o1twpaz, H:at qi1E'AE

rpvyaY, Hal acpaYEt' EyzvoYro a{ o1twpaz.

Tovro oE (Jqp.azvEt rqy Hara cpaYra(Jzay C,wqY.

Avrq OE (Jqp.aYEt ro OAt(JifqpoY H:at ozvpyoy,

H:az ifa't'f'OYa 7t07tauop.EYoY. So that accord-ing to the wisdom of the ancients, and the most sublime philosophy, the misery which . a soul endures in the present life, when giv- ( ing itself up to the dominion of the irrational )'. part, is nothing more than the commence-


44 E !eus£nt"an and

( ment, as it were, of that torment which it

). will experience hereafter: a torment the same in kind though different in degree, as

/it will be much more dreadful, vehement, '. and extended. And by the above specimen, the reader may perceive how infinitely superior the explanation which the Platonic philosophy affords of these fables is to the frigid and trifling interpre~ations of · Bacon and other modem mythologists ; who are able indeed to point out their correspondence to something in the natural or moral world, because such is the wonderful connection of things, that all things sympathize with all, but are at the same time ignorant that these fables were composed by men divinely wise. who framed them after the model of the highest originals, from the contemplation of rea! and permanent bez"ng, and not from regarding the delusive and fluctuating objects of sense. This, indeed, will be evident to

(every ingenuous mind, from reflecting that these wise men universally considered Hell or death as commencing in the present life, (as we have already abundantly proved), and


Baciltit Myster£es. 45

that, consequently, sense is nothing more\ than the energy of the dormant soul, and a ) perception, as it were, of. the ~elu.sio~s of) dreams. In consequence of this, It IS ab*. surd in the highest degree to imagine that\ such · men would compose fables from the \

'{ contemplation of shadows only, without re- 1. · garding the splendid · originals from which; these dark phantoms were . produced :- 'not to mention that their harmonizing so much more perfectly with intellectual explications is an indisputable· proof that they were derived from an intellectual [noetic] source.

And thtis much for the dramatic shows of the Lesser Mysteries, or the first part of j these sacred institutions, which was properly i

I

denominated n'AET7f [telete, the closing up] ; and J.lV7f<fz' muest's, [the initiation], as con-: taining certain perfective rites, symbolical ex-( hibitions and the imparting and reception of · sacred doctrines, previous to the beholding of the most splendid visions, or en:on:reza [epop-) tela, seership ]. For thus the gradation of the Mysteries is disposed by Proclus in


Eleus£n£an and

Theology of Plato, book iv. 1• The perfec#ve r£te [ re'Aer,, telete ]," says he, " precedes in order the z'n£Hat£on [,uv,<Yz,, mueszs ], and £n£ti'a-

. Hon, the final apocalypse, epopte£a." Ilpo,yu:rro yap, , ,uev nJ..er'l .,,, ,u.v<Yecu,, avr'l oE .,,, ~1to1treza,, • At the same time it is proper to observe, that the whole business of initiation was distributed into five parts, as we are informed by Theon of Smyrna, in Mathematica, who thus elegantly compares philosophy to these mystic rites : " Again," says he, " philosophy may be called the initiation into true sacred ceremonies, and . the instruction in genuine Mysteries ; for there are _Ji.y:e__ parts of initiation : the first of which is the previous purification ; for neither are the Mysteries communicated to all who are willing to receive them ; but there are certain persons who are prevented by the voice of the crier [ 1£'lpve, kerux ], such as those who possess impure hands and an inartic ulate voice ; since it is necessary that such as are not expelled from the Mysteries should first be refined by certain purifica-

* TMulugy uf Plato, book iv. p. 220.


Bacckz'c Mysterz"es. 47

tions : but a_fter purification, the reception of the sacred tltes succeeds. The third part is denomir:tat~~ _epojtez.'a, or ~e~;;ption.*. ···-And the fourth, which is the end and design of the r~velatiop, is [the investiture] th~ binding of the headand fixing of the crowns. The initiated person is, by this means, authorized to communicate to others the sacred rites in which he has been instructed ; whether \ after this he becomes a torch-bearer, or an \ hierophant of the Mysteries, or sustains some) other part of the sacerdotal office, l3.11...tthe fifth, which is produced from all tl;lese,_ is frz'endshz'p and interior communz'on w#h .g_od, and the enjoyment of that felicity · which arises from intimate converse with divine beings. Similar to this is the com-: mun.ication of political instruction ; for, in the first place, a certain purification precedes, or . else an exercise in proper mathematical

• Theon appears to regard the final apocalypse or epopteia, like E . Pococke to whose views allusion is made elsewhere. This writer says: "The initiated were styled ebaptoi," and adds in a foot-note-'' A vaptoi, literally obtaining or getting." According to this the epoptda would imply the final reception of the interior doctrines.-A. W.


E leus£n£an and

discipline from early youth. For thus Empedocles asserts, that it is necessary to be

_ purified from sordid concerns, by drawing from five fountains, with a vessel of indissoluble brass : but Plato, that purification is to be derived from the five mathematical disciplines, namely from arithmetic, geometry, stereometry, music, and astronomy; but the philosophical instruction in theorems, logical, political, and physical, is similar to initiation. But he (that is, ~l~to) denomi!!ates e1roneza [or the revealing], a contemplation of things which are apprehended _ intuitively, absolute truths, and ideas. But he considers the binding of the head, and coronation, as analogous to the authority which any one receives from his instructors, of leading others to the same contemplation. And the fifth gradation is, the most perfect felicity arising from hence, and, according to Plato, an ass£m£lat£on to d£v£n£ty, as far as is possible to mankind." But though E1C01CTEza,

?r the rendition of the arcane ideas, principally characterized the greater Mysteries, yet

· this was likewise accompanied with the tw-n-

Digitized by Coogle

Bacch£c · Mysteries. v 49

en~, or initiation, as will be evident in the course of this inquiry. v

But ~!_us now proceed to the doctrine of the Greater Mysteries : and here I shall endeavor to prove, that as the dramatic shows Q.f the_ Lesser Mysteries occultly signified the V' miseries of the soul while in subjection to ~C>dy, so those of the Greater obscurely inti- V mated, by mystic and splendid visions, the felicity of the soul both here and hereafter, when purified from the defilements of a \ material nature, and constantly elevated to the realities of intellectual [spiritual] vision. · Hence, as the ultimate design of the Myste-ries, according to Plato, was to lead us back ~o the principles from which we descended, that is, to a perfect enjoyment of intellectual [spiritual] good, the imparting of these principles was doubtless one part of the doctrine -1 contained in the a?topprJra, aporrheta, or se- · cret discourses ; * and the different purifica-

* The apostle Paul apparently alludes to the disclosing d the Mystical doctrine~ to the epopts or seers, in his Second Epistk

1o tlu Corintkiam, xii. 3, 4 : "I knew a certain man,-whether in

4


" \

so Elcust'm.an and

'tions exhibited in these rites, in conjunction with initiation and the epopteta were symbols of the gradation of virtues requisite to this reascent of the soul. And hence too, if this be the case, a representation of the descent of the ·

, soul [from its former heavenly estate] must · certainly form no inconsiderable part of these · mystic shows ; all which the following observations will, I do not doubt, abundantly evince.

In the first place, then, that the shows of the Greater Mysteries occultly signified the felicity of the soul both here and hereafter, when separated from the contact and influence of the body, is evident from what has been demonstrated in the former part of thjs

· discourse: for if he who t"n the present life is t'n subject£on to h-is £rrat£onal part z's truly

z'n Hades, he who -is superior to t"ts domt"ni'on -is lt"kewt'se an t'nhabt"tant of a place totally dijferent ..from Hades.* If Hades thetefQre

body or outside of body, I know not: God knowl'th,-who was rapt into paradise, and heard CCPP'!TCC P'!l.ltcra, things ineffable, which it is not lawful for a man to repeat." ·

* PAUL, Epistle to tlu P nilippians, iii. 20 : "Our citizenship it in the heavens."


Bacchi& Mystert"es. 51

i!the region or condition of punishment and misery, the purified soul must reside in the . regions of bliss ; in a life and condition of) purity and contemplation in the present life, and entheastically,* animated by the divine

* M~dkal and Surgkal R~pqrtn-, vol. xxxii. p. 195. " Those who have professed to teach their fellow-mortals new truths concerning immortality, have based their authority on direct divine inspiration. Numa, Zoroaster, Mohammed, Swedenborg; all claimed communication with higher spirits ; they were what the Greeks called mtluast-' immersed in God '-a striking \YOrd which Byron introduced into our tongue." Carpenter describes

the condition as an automatic action of the brain. The inspired ideas arise in the mind suddenly, spontaneously, but very vividly, at some time when thinking !Jf s!Jm~ IJI!ur topic. Francis Galton defines genius as " the automatic activity of the mind, or distinguished from the effort of the will,-the ideas coming by inspiration." This action, says the editor of the Rttj!Jrl~r, is largely \ favored by a condition approaching mental disorder-at least by .

. I

one remote from the ordinary working-day habits of thought. \ Fasting, prolonged intense mental action, great and unusual commotion of mind, will produce it; and, indeed, these extraordinary displays seem to have been so preceded. Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, all began their careers by fasting, and visions of devils followed by angels. The candidates in the Eleusinian Mysteries also saw visions and apparitions, while engaged in the my.tic orgies. We do not, however, accept the materialistic view of this subject. The cases are mtheastic; and although hysteria and other disorders of the sympathetic systein sometimes imitate the phenomena, we believe with Plato and Plotinus, that the higher faculty, intellect or intuition as we prefer to call it, .the noetic part

Digitized by Goog I e _,J' -

Eleust'nt"an and

.energy. in the __ ~ext. This being admitted, let us proceed to consider the description which Virgil gives us of these fortunate abodes, and the latent signification which it contains. ..tEneas and his guide, then, having passed through Hades, and seen at a distance Tartarus, or the utmost profundity of a material nature, they next advance to the Elysian fields:

Devenere locus laetos, et amaena vireta .Fortunatorum nemorum, sedesque beatas. Largior hie campos aether et Iumine vestit Purpureo ; solemque suum, sua sidera norunt.*

Now the secret meaning of these joyful places is thus beautifully unfolded by Olympiodorus in his manuscript Commentary on the Gorgt"as of Plato. -J.rlt is necessary to

.of our uature, is the faculty actually at work. " By reflection, self-knowledge, and intellectual discipline, the soul can be raised ;to the vision of eternal truth, goodness, and beauty-that is, to the vision of God." This is the epopteia.-A. W.

• "They came to the blissful regions, and delightful green retreats, and happy abodes in the fortunate groves. A freer and purer sky here clothes the fields with a purple light: they recogaue their own sun, their own stars."


BacchZ:c Myster-ies. • 53

know," says he," that the fortunate z''s!ands are said to be raised above the sea ; and hence a condition of being, which transcends this corporeal life and generated existence is denominated the islands of the blessed ; but these are the same with the Elysian fields. And on this account Hercules is said to have accomplished his last labor in the Hesperian regions ; signifying by this, that having vanquished a dark and earthly life, he afterward lived in day, that is, in truth and light." LJez OE EZOEY«Z OT'Z a{ Y'/O'OZ tJ7CcpJ£V1tTOVO'ZY T'/S

53-alaO'O''/~ aroo-repoo ovo-az. T'lr OVY 1tolznzar

T'/Y V1tEpJ£vtpao-ar Tov fJzov J£az T'/> yer,o-'eoo~, j.l«J£apG:JY Y'/O'OV~ H«AOVO'Z. TaVTOY oe eo-n Haz

TO '/AVO'ZOY 1tEOZOY. Llza TOZ TOVTO H«Z 0 'HpaH-• A'/> -relevTazor a5Jlor er Toz~ eo-1tepzoz~ pepeo-w

E1tOZ'/O'«TO, «YT'Z H«T'/YG:JYZO'«TO TOY O'HOTEZYOY

Haz x5Joyzoy fhor, Haz AOZ1tOY EY TtJ.lEPf!, OO'T'ZY

Er al'/53-Ezf! Haz tpooTz ec,,. So that he who ~ in the present state vanquishes as much . as possible a corporeal life, through the practice of the purifying virtues, passes in , reality into the Fortunate Islands of the soul, and lives surrounded with the bright splen-


54 • E !eus£n£an and

dors of truth and wisdom proceeding from the sun of good.

The poet, in describing the employments of the blessed, says :

Pars in gramineis exercent membra palaestris: Contendunt Judo, et fulva luctantur arena: Pars pedibus plaudunt choreas, et carmina dicunt. Nee non Threicius longa cum veste sacerdos Obloquitur numeris septem discrimina vocum: Iamque eadem digitis, jam pectine pulsat eburno. Hie genus antiquum Teucri, pulcherrima proles, Magnanimi heroes, nati melioribus annis, Illusque, Assaracusque, et Trojae Dardanus auctor. Arma procul, currusque virum miratur inanis. Stant terra defixae hastae, passimque soluti Per campum pascuntur equi. Quae gratia curruum Armorumque fuit vi vis, quae cura nitentis Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos. Conspicit, ecce alios, dextra laevaque per herbam Vescentis, laetumque choro Paeana canentis, Inter odoratum lauri nemus : unde superne Plurimus Eridani per silvam volvitur amnis.•

"':::::::f' • " Some exercise their limbs upon the grassy field, contend in play and wrestle on the yellow sand ; some dance on the ground and utter songs. The priestly Thracian, likewise, in his long robe (Orpheus] responds in melodious numbers to the seven distinguished notes ; and now strikes them with his fingers, now with the ivory quill. Here are also the at1cient race of Teucer.


Bacchi(; Mysteries. . 55

This must not be understood as if the soul in the regions of felicity retained any affection for material concerns, or was engaged in the trifling pursuits of the everyday corporeal life ; but that when separated from ~nerati<:>n, and the world's life, she is constantly engaged in employments proper to the ~her spiritual nature ; either in divine con- r

tests of the most exalted wisdom ; in forming the responsive dance of refined . imaginations; in tuning the sacred lyre of mystic piety to strains of divine fury and ineffable delight ; i,n giving free scope to the splendid and winged powers of the soul ; or in 'nourishing the higher intellect with the sub-

a most illustrious progeny, noble heroes, born in happier years,-

11, Assarac, and Dardan, the founder of Troy. .IEneas looking from afar, admires the arms and empty war-cars of the heroes.

There stood &pears fixed in the ground, and scattered over the plain horses are feeding. The same taste which when alive these

men had for chariots and arms, the same passion for rearing glossy

steeds, follow them reposing beneath the earth. Lo ! also he

views others, on the right and left, feasting · on the grass, and

singing in chorus the joyful paeon, amid a fragrant grove of laurel ; whence from above the greatest river Eridanus rolls through the woods."

A paeon was chanted to Apollo at Delphi every seventh day.

Digitized by Coogle

Eleust"nian and

stantial b::mqu~ts of intelligible ~J?izi.tual] fg.Qd. Nor is it without reason that the river Eridanus is represented as flowing through these delightful abodes ; and is at the same time denominated plurt"mus (greatest), because a great part of it was absorbed in the earth without emerging from thence : for a river is the symbol of life, and consequently signifies in this place the t"ntellectual or spt"rltual life, proceedz"ng from on ht"gh, that is, from divinity itself, and gliding with prolific energy through the hidden and profound recesses of the soul.

In the following lines he says:

N~Ili certa domus. Lucis habitamus opacis, Riparumque t6ros, et prata recentia rivis Incolimus.•

( By the blessed not being confined to a particular habitat~on, is ii~plied t~at they. are

1 \ perfectly free m all thmgs; bemg entirely I · -

i \ ) *No one of us has a fixed abode. We inhabit the dark groves,

and occupy couches on the river-banks, and meadows fresh with little rivulets."

Digitized by Coogle

Bacchz'c Myster£es. 57

free from all material restraint, and purified from all inclination incident to the dark and cold tenement of the body. The' shady. groves are symbols of the retiring of the soul to the depth of her essence, and there. §Y __ energy solely divine, establishing herself in the ineffable principle of things.* And the ~~~.<fows are symbols of that prolific powe~ of the gods through which all the variety of reasons, animals, and forms was produced, and which is here the refreshing pasture and retreat of the liberated souL

But that the communication of the knowle%e of the principles from which the soul d~~~~!lded formed a part of the sacred M yst~ties is evident from Virgil ; and that this was accompanied with a vision of these princ~ples or gods, is no less certain, fr()m the

* PLATO: R~ublic, vi. s. "He who possesses the love of true knowledge is naturally carried in his aspirations to the real prin

ciple of being; and his love knows no repose till it shall have been united with the uunct of each object through that part of the

soul, which is akin to the Permanent and Essential; and so, the divine conjunction having evolved interior knowledge and truth,

the knowledge of being is won."

· c t ·~ Digitized by 008 e

' ' \

I I I

ss Eleusinian and

testimony of Plato, Apuleius, and Proclus. The first part of this assertion is evinced by the following beautiful lines :

Principia aelum ac terras, camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum lunae, Titaniaque astra Spiritus intus alit, totumque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet. Inde hominum pecudumque genus, vitaeque volantum, Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus. Igneus est oil is vigor, et ctelestis origo Seminibus, quantum non noxia corpora tardant, Terrenique hebetant artus, moribundaque membra. Hinc metuunt cupiuntque: dolent, gaudentque: neque auras Despiciunt clausa tenebris et carcere caeco.*

For the sources of the soul's existence are also the principles from which it fell ; and these, as we may learn from the Tt"maus of

• " First of all the interior spirit sustains the heaven and earth and watery plains, the illuminated orb of the moon, and the Titanian stars ; and the Mind, diffused through all the members, gives energy to the whole frame, and mingles with the vaet body (of the universe). Thence proceed the race of men and beasts, the vital souls of birds and the brutes which the Ocean breeds beneath· its smooth surface. In them all is a potency like fire, and a celestial origin as to the rudimentary principles, so far as they

: are not clogged by noxious bodies. They are deadened by earthly forms and members subject to death ; hence they fear and desire, grieve and rejoice; nor do they, thus enclosed in darkness and the gloomy prison, behold the heavenly air."



Plato, are the Demiurgus, the mundane soul, and the junior or mundane gods.*-N ow, of theset the mundane intellect, which, accordi~ . to ~he ancient. theology, is represented by Bacchus, is principally celebrated by the poet, and this because the soul is particularly distributed into generation, after the manner of Dionysus or Bacchus, as is ev~dent from the preceding extracts from Olympiodorus: and is still more abundantly confirmed by the following curious passage from the same author, in his comment on the Pluedo of Plato. " The soul," says he, " descends Corically [or after the manner of Proserpine] into generation,t but is distributed into gen~) eration Dionysiacally,t and slie is bound in

• Timau.r. xliv. "The Deity (Demiurgus) himself formed the divi1U; and then delivered over to his celestial offspring [the subordinate or generated gods), the task of creating the tn()rlal.

These subordinate deities, copying the example of their parent, and receiving from his hands the imm()rlal prindplu of the human soul, fashioned after this the mortal body, which they consigned to the soul as a vehicle, al)d in which they placed also another kind of a soul, which is mortal, and is the seat of violent and fatal passions."

t That is to say, as if dying. Korc! was a name of Proserpina. t I. e. as if divided into pieces.


6o Eleust'nz"an and

body Prometheiacally* and Titanically : she · frees herself therefore from its bonds by ex' ercising the strength of Hercules; but she is ! collected into one through the assistance of i) Apollo and the savior Minerva, by phil losophical discipline of mind and heart purify

ing the nature." Ha-reurw q ¢vxrr V1Z'O '~'11~ yEYUterv~·

'Qn HOplHf»~ }lEY El~ yEYEO'LY

LJtOYVO'LaHCV~ 6E J.lEptC,E't'at

IlpOJ.l1'/S'Ezoo~ 6E, Hat Tt-ra-

YaHoo~, EyHa-ra6Ezraz -rep O'OOJ.lan· AvEt J.lEY ovv

~aV't'1'/Y 'HpaHAEtt»' LO'XVO'a<J'a• ~VYatpEt 6E 6t

A1toU.ooYo~ Hat '1'1'/~ o-oorftpa~ AS'17Ya~, HaS'apn

HOO~ -rev oYn qn'Aoo-otpovo-a. The poet, however, intimates the other causes of the soul's exis,tence, when he says,

Igneus est ollis vigor, el &tZltstis mgp Seminibus t

which evidently alludes to the sowt'ng of souls into generation,t mentioned in the Tz"mteus. And from hence the reader will

• l. e. Chained fast. t "There is then a certain fiery potency, and a celestial origin

as to the rudimentary principles." I. e. Restored to wholeness and divine life.

t I Cvrint/rians, xv. 42-44.-" So also is the anasfasis of the


Bacclt£c Myster£~s. 61

easily perceive the extreme ridiculousness of) Dr. Warburton's system, that the grand secret of the Mysteries consisted in exposing the errors of Polytheism, and in teaching the doctrine of the unity, or the existence of one deity alone. For he might as well have said, that the great secret consisted in teaching a man how, by writing notes on the works of a poet, he might become a b£sltop I But it is by no means wonderful that men who have not the smallest conception of the true nature of the gods ; who have persuaded themselves that the:r were only dead men deified ; and who measure the understandings of the ancients by their own, should be led to fabricate a system so improbable and absurd.

But that this instruction was accompanied) with a vision of the source from which the i soul proceeded, is evident from the express ': testimony, in the first place, of Apuleius, ;

)

dead. It is sown in corruption [the material body); it is raised in incorruption ; it is sown in dishonor ; it is raised in glory ; it is sown in weakness ; it is raised in power; it is sown a psychical

body; it is raised a spiritual body.''

Digitized by Goog I e .. ·

l

Eleusini'an and

who thus describes his initiation -~nt9 t:be Mysteries. "Accessi confinium mortis; et

cilcato Proserpinre limine, per omnia vectus elementa remeavi. N octe media vidi solem candido coruscantem lumine, deos t'nferos, et deos superos. Accessi coram, et adoravi de proximo." * That is, " I approached the confines of death : and having trodden on the threshold of Proserpina returned, having been earned through all the elements. In the depths of midnight I saw the ~n glittering with a splendid light, together wt"tlt Ike infernal and supernal gods : and to these divinities approaching near, I paid the tribute of devout adoration." And this is no less evjde11!ly implied by Pl(ltO, who thus descibes the felicity of th~ holy soul prior to its descent, in a beautiful allusion to the arcane visions of the Mysteries. KaUo' oc -rorc 77Y ZOEZY AlX)J1tpor, on (/VY EVO«ZjJOYl

XOPCfJ JJ«xaptaY o!fJtY ·u xaz ~caY E1tO)JEYOt )JET«

JJEY Llzo' !,)Jet,, aJ..J..oz oc pe-r' aA.J..ov ~ECt:JY, Ezoor

n xat cnA.ovr-ro nA.c-rCt:JY !,r ~EJJZ' A.cyczr paxa

p,oo-ra-rqr· ttY opyzaC,opcY oA.oxA.qpoz J.lcY av-ror

* Tlu GD/dm Ass. xi


Bacchz'c MysterZ:es.

OY'fE), Haz a7taS'Et) HaHooY oa-a r,pa) EY va--apcp

xpovcp V1tEJ.lEYEY. 'Oloxll.,pa ae xaz a7t'A.a Hat

a"tpEJ.I.TI Haz ev6atpova lpadpa"ta pvovpevoz n xat E7t07t'fEVOY"fE) EY avy1J xaS'apr xaS'apot

OY"tE) Hat ad17J.laY'tOZ "fOV'tOV 0 YVY 6r1 dU'Jj.la

7tEptlpEpOY'tE) OYOJ.laf!,OJ.lEY Od'tpEOV "rp07tOY 6E

6Ed J.lWJ.lEYOt.-That is, " But it was then lawful to survey the most splendid beauty, when we obtained, together with that blessed choir, this happy vision and contemplation. And we indeed enjoyed this blessed spectacle together with Jupiter; but others in conjunction with some other god ; at the same time being £n£tz'ated in those MysterZ:es, which it is lawful to call the most blessed of all Mysteries. And these divine Orgz'es* were celebrated by us, while we possessed the proper integrity of our nature, we were freed from the molestations of evil which otherwise await us in a future period of time. Likewise, in consequence . of this divine Z:nz'#at-ion, we became spectators of entire, simple, immovable, and blessed vis-ions, res-

*The peculiar rites of the Mysteries were indifferently termed Orgies or Labors, tektai or finishings, ud initiations. ·

\ '

------


Eleusz'nz"an · and

! v

ident in a pure light; and were ourselves pure and immaculate, beirig liberated from this surrounding vestment, which we denominate body, and to w~ich we are now bound like an oyster to its shell." * Upon this

.. beautiful passage Proclus observes, " That the inz'Hatt"on and epopteia [the vailing and the

A revealing] are symbols of ineffable silence, and of union with mystical natures, through intelligible visions.t Kaz yap ~ J.lV1!tYz~, H.at .,

_ * P lttZdrus, 64. t PROCLUS: T/uq/qgy IJ/ PlatiJ, book iv. The following read

ing is suggested: " The initiation and final disclosing are a symbol of the Indfable Silence, and of the mosis, or being at <1ne and m rappqrl with the mystical verities through manifesta

tions intuitively comprehended."

The J.W7!6zS, mutsis, or initiation is defined by E. Pococke as

relating to the "well-known Buddhist Moksha, final and eternal

happiness, the liberation of the soul from the body and its exemption from further transmigration." 1 For all mysttZ therefore there

was a certain welcome to the abodes of the blessed. The term .etro1Creza, epqpttia, applied to the last ~cene of initiation, he de

rives from the Sanscrit, evaptiJi, an obtaining; the epopt being regarded as having ,secured for himself or herself divine bliss.

It is more usual, however, to treat these terms as pure Greek; .and to render the muesis as initiation and to derive epqpteia from

etron:roJ.taz. According to this etymology an epopt is a sur or

r.lairvqyant, one who knows the interior wisdom. The terms in

spector, and superintendent do not, to me, at aU express the idea, nnd I am inclined, in fact, to suppose with Mr. Pococke, that the


Bacchi'c Mysteries.

etro7t-reza, 't''l' appe-rov O'LY'l; eO'n O'VJJ{Jo'Aov, xat

't''l' 7tp0' 't'« J.lVO''t'lX« 6La 't'GJY 'YO'!'TGJ'Y tp«O')la

'l'GJY evootuoo,. Now, from all this, it may be inferred, that the most sublime part of the errorrnza [epoptela J or final revealing, con- { sisted in beholding the gods themselves invested with a resplendent light ; * and that this was symbolical of those transporting visions, which the virtuous soul will constantly enjoy in a future state ; and of which it is able to gain some ravishin~ glimpses,

Mysteries came from the East, and from that to deduce that the

technical words and expression~ are other than Greek. Plot in us, speaking of this mosis or oneness, lays down a spiritual

discipline analogous to that of the Mystic Orgies: "Purify your

soul from all undue hope and fear about earthly th'ings ; mortify \ the body, deny self-affections as well as appetites,-and the inner)

eye will begin to exercise its clear and solemn vision." •· In the

reduction of your soul to its simplest principles, the divine germ, you attain this oneness. We stand then in the immediate pre

sence oi God, who shines out from the profound depths of the

soul."-A. W.

* APULEIUS: TlU Goldm Ass. xi. The candidate wa.~ in-structed by the hierophant. and permitted to look within the

dsta or chest, which contained the mystic serpent, the phallus,

egg, and grains sacred to Demeter. As the epopt was reverent, or otherwise, he now "knew him;;elf" by the sentiments aroused.

Plato and Alcibiades gazed with emotions wide apart.-A. W.

')


66 E leus.zi,rian_ and

even while connected with th·e cumbrous vestment of body.*

But that this was actually the case, is evident from the following unequivocal testimony of Proclus: EY a-rta(1t -rat' nl.eraz'

xat f'Ot' }JV<1f'1'/Pl0t,, o{ .9-Eot 7tOAAa' }JEY EaVf'C.W

7tpOT'EtYovc:Jt poptpa,, . . 7toll.a oE <1X1'/JJara el;

alarroYf'E' tpatYOYf'at• Hat f'Of'E ).lEY af'V7t00-

t'OY avroaY 7tpofJefJl1'/f'az tpoa,, ron oE Et' aY-

5:ipoa7tEtOY J.l0Plp1'/Y E<1X1'/J.laf'l<1}JEYOY, f'OT'E _oE Et'

allo lOY f'V7tOY 7tp0EA1'/Av()oo,. I. e. "In all the initiations and Mysteries, the gods exhibit many forms of themselves, and appear in a variety of shapes : and sometimes, indeed, a formless light t of themselves is held forth to the view ; sometimes this light is

* PLOTINUS: utl~r to Flaccus. "It is only now and then that we can enjoy the elevation made possible for us, above the

limits of the body and the world. I myself have realized it but three times as yet, and Porphyry hitherto not once."

Porphyry afterward declared that he witnessed four times. when near him, the soul or" intellect •• of Plot in us thus raised up

to the First and Sovereign Good ; also that he himself was only once so eleva~ed to the mosis or union with God, so as to have

glimpses of the eternal world.-This did not occur till he was sixty-eight years of age.-A. W.

t I . ~. a luminous appearance without any defined form or shape of an object.


Bacchic Mysteries.

according to· a human form, and sometimes it proceeds into a different shape." * This assertion of divine visions in the Mysteries, is clearly confirmed by Plotinus.t And, in * short, that magical evocation formed a part of the g;:cerdotal office in the Mysteries, and that this was universally believed by all ~ntiquity, long before the era of the latter Platonists,t is plain from the testimony of Hippocrates, or at least Democritus, in his Treatise de Morbo Sacro. § For speaking of those who attempt to cure this disease by magic, he observes : ez yap (JEA'lr'lr n H.aeaz

pezr, xaz ~A.tor atparzC,ezr, XEtfJ.U:JYa -rE xaz EV

OL'!Y 7tOtEzr1 xaz OJJ.{Jpov' xaz «VXJJ.OV,, xat .9-a

Aa(J(far atporor xaz y,r, xaz -r' aA.A.a -ra -rozov-ro

-rpo7ta 1tar-ra E7ttoexor-raz· E7tt(f-ra(f!:taz, Et'rE xaz

EX TEAETnN, Et-rE xaz ee aA.A.,, -rzro' YYGJfJ.'l~

JJ.EAE'r'l' tpa(fzy OlOt 'fE ElYat Ot -rav-ra E7ttT''!OEV

OY-rE' ov(JEjJEEzr EJJ.Ot ye ooxeov(fz. x. A.. I. e. " For if they profess themselves able to dr~w

* Co_mmentary upon tlze .Repu6/ic of Plato, page 38o.

t Ennead. i. book 6 ; and ix. book 9· * Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus, Longinus, and their associates.

§Epilepsy.


Eleztsinian and

-down the moon, to obscure the sun, to produce stormy and pleasant weather, as likewise showers of rain, and heats, and to render the sea and earth barren, and to accomplish every thing else of this kind ; whether they derive this knowledge from the Mysteries, or from some other mental effort or meditation, they appear to me to be impious, from the study of such concerns." From all which is easy to see, how egregiously Dr. Warburton was mistaken, when, in page 231 of his Divine Legation, he asserts, " that the light beheld in the Mysteries, was nothing more than an .illuminated image which the priests had thoroughly purified."

But he is likewise no less mistaken, in transferring the injunction given in one of the Magic Oracles of Zoroaster, to the business of the Eleusinian Mysteries, and in perverting the meaning of the Oracle's admoni· tion. For thus the Oracle speaks :

M17 t:pvdeoo> xaJ..ed17> avro1tror ayaJ..)I.a,

Ov yap XP'l xezrov> de f3J..e1tezr 1tpzr doo)l.a reJ..ed~'l·


Bacchic MysterZ:es.

That is," Invoke not Ike self-revea!t'ng image of Nature, for you must not behold these things before your body has received the initiation."-U pon which he observes, "that the self-revealt:ng image was only a difusive shi?zing light, as tke name partly declares."* But this is a piece of gross ignorance, from which he might have been freed by an attentive perusal of Proclus on the Timreus of Plato : for in these truly divine Commentaries we learn, '' that the moon t is the cause "of nature to mortals, and the self-revealing ima$'e of the fountaz'n of nature." ~e>...,.,., pev azna -roz> ;}v.,-rot~ 'l'Tf~ cpvo-ecut;1 -ro av-ro7r'tOY aya'Apa ova-a .

-r.,; 7rTfyazat; cpvo-eoot;. If the reader is desirous of knowing what we are to understand by the fountain of nature of which the moon is the image, let him attend to the following information, derived from a long and deep study of the ancient theology : for from hence I have learned, that there are many divine fountains contained in the essence of

*Divine U.t;ation, p. 231.

t I . e. The Mother-Goddess, Isis or Demeter, symbolized u Selen6 or the Moon.


Eleuslnlan and

· the demiurgus of the world ; and that among these there are three of a very distinguished rank, namely, the fountain of souls, or Juno, -the fountain of virtues, or Minerva,-and the fountain of nature, or Diana. This last fountain too immediately depends on the vivifying goddess 'Rhea; and was assumed by the Demiurgus among the rest, as necessary to the prolific reproduction of himself. And this information will enable us besides to explain the meaning of the following passages in Apuleius, which, from not . being understood, have induced the moderns to believe that Apuleius acknowledged but one deity alone. The first of these passages is in the beginning of the eleventh book of his Metamorphoses, in which the divinity of the moon is represented as addressing him in this sublime manner: "En adsum tuis commota, Luci, precibus, rerum Natura parens, elementorum omnium domina, seculorum progenies initialis, summa numinum, regina Manium, prima crelitum, Deorum Dearumque facies uniformis : qure creli luminosa cui-

. mina, maris salubria fiamina, inferorum de


Bacchz'c Mysterz'es.

plorata silentia nutibus meis dispenso: cujus numen unicum, multiformi specie, ritu vario, nomine multijugo totus veneratur orbis. Me primigenii Phryges Pessinunticam nominant Deum matrem. Hinc Autochthones Attici Cecropiam Minervam ; illinc fluctuantes Cyprii Paphiam V enerem : Cretes sagittiferi

, Dictynnam Dianam ; Siculi trilingues Stygiam Proserpinam ; Eleusinii vetustam Deam Cerereni : J unonem alii, alii Bellonam, alii Hecaten, Rhamnusiam alii. Et qui nascentis dei Solis inchoantibus radiis illustrantur, .tEthiopes, Ariique, priscaque doctrina pollentes .tEgyptii crerimoniis me prorsus propriis percolentes appellant vero nomine reginam Isidem." That is, " Behold, Lucius, moved with thy supplications, I am present ; I, who am Nature, the parent of things, mistress of all the elements, initial progeny of the ages, the highest of the divinities, queen of departed spirits, the first of the celestials, of gods and god~esses the sole likeness of all: who rule by my nod the luminous heights of the heavens, the salubrious breezes of the sea, and the woful silences of the in-.


Eleusz"nz"an and

fernal regions, and whose divinity, in itself but one, is venerated by all the earth, in many characters, various rites, and different appellations. Hence the primitive Phrygians call me Pessinuntica, the mother of the gods ; the Attic Autochthons, Cecropian Minerva; the wave-surrounded Cyprians, Paphian Venus ; the arrow-bearing Cretans, Dictynnian Diana; the three-tongued Sicilians, Stygian Proserpina ; and the inhabitants of Eleusis, the ancient goddess Ceres. Some again have invoked me as Juno, others as Bellona, others as Hecate, and others as Rhamnusia : and those who are enlJghtened by the emerging rays of the rising sun, the .lEthiopians, and Aryans, and likewise the .£gyptians powerful in ancient learning, who reverence my divinity with ceremonies perfectly proper, call me by my true appellation Queen Isis." And, again, in another place. of the same book, he says of the moon: "Te Superi colunt, observant Inferi: tu rotas orbem, luminas Solem, regis mundum, calcas Tartarum. Tibi respondent sidera, gaudent numina, redeunt tempora, serviunt elementa,


Bacchz"c Mysteries. 73

etc." That is, " The supernal gods reverence thee, and those in the realms beneath attentively do homage to thy divinity. Thou dost make the universe revolve, illuminate the sun, govern the world, and tread on Tartarns. The stars answer thee, the gods rejoice, the hours and seasons return by thy appointment, and the elements serve thee." For all this easily follows, if we consider it as addressed to ·the fountain-deity of nature, subsisting in the Demiurgus, and which is the exemplar of that nature which flourishes in the lunar orb, and throughout the material world, _and from which the deity itself of the moon originally proceeds. Hence, as this fountain immediately depends on the life-giving goddess Rhea, the reason is obvious, why it was formerly worshiped as the mother of the gods: and as all the mundane are . contained in the super-mundane gods, the other appellations are to be considered as names of the several mundane divinities produced by this fountain, and in whose essence they are li~ewise contained


74 E leusinian and

But to proceed with our inquiry, I shall, in the next place, prove that the different purifications exibited in these rites, in conjunction with initiation and the epopteia · were symbols of the gradation of disciplines requisite to the reascent of the soul.* And the first part, indeed, of this proposition respecting the purifications, immediately follows from the testimony of Plato in the passage already adduced, in which he asserts, that the ultimate design of the Mysteries was to lead us back to the principles from which

! we originally fell. For if the Mysteries were · symbolical, as is universally acknowledged,

• this must likewise be true of the purifications as a part of the Mysteries ; and as inward purity, of which the external is- symbolical, can only be obtained by the exercise

, of the virtues, it evidently follows, that the purifications were symbols of the purifying moral virtues. And the latter part of the proposition may be easily inferred, from the passage already cited from the Plzcedrus of Plato, in which he compares initz"atz'on and

* I. ~. to its former divine condition,

Digitized by Coogle

Baechle Mysteries. 75

the . epoptela to the blessed vision of the) higher intelligible natures; an employment which can alone belong to the exercise of contemplation. But the whole of this is rendered indisputable by the following remarkable testimony of Olympiodorus, in his excellent manuscript Commentary on the Phtedo of Plato.* "In the sacred rites," says he, " popular purifications are in the first place brought forth, and after these such as are more arcane. But in the third place. collections of various things into one are received; after which follows inspection. The ethical and political virtues therefore are analogous to the apparent purifications ; the

* We have taken the liberty to present the following version of this passage, as more correctly expressing the sense of the original : "At the holy places are first the public purifications. With these the more arcane exercises follow; and after those the obligations (6v6ra6ez$') are taken, and the initiations follow, ending with the ~poptic disclosures. So, as will be seen, the moral and social (political) virtues are analogous to the public purifications; the purifying virtues in their turn, which take the place of all external matters, correspond to the more arcane disciplines ; the contemplative exercises concerning things to be known intuitive

ly to the taking of the obligations; the including of them as an undivided whole, to the initiations; and the simple ocular view of simple objects to the epoptic revelations."

•


E!eus£n£an and

cathartic virtues as banish all external impressions, correspond to the more arcane purifications. The theoretical energies about intelligibles, are analogous to the collections ; and the contraction of these energies into an indivisible nature, corresponds to initiation. And the simple self-inspection of simple forms, is analogous to epoptic vision." 'On er -roz; {epoz; 1}yovr-ro JJ.EY ad 1taYOT/JJ.Ot Na'.:;;ap-

11tL;. Ez"fa t1tt -ravTaz; a1tOPPT/"fO"ftpat• JJ.E'f'a oe

-rav"fa' trvi1Tatret' 7tapeA.aJJ.f3aror-ro, Nat e1rr.

-rav"faz' JJ.Vrtl1et;• er -reA.et oe t7C07C"fetat. AraA.o-

yovi1L "fOLYVY a{ JJ.EY rtf:!itNaL Nat 7COAL"flNat ape

'f'at1 "fOl' ewparel1z Na'.:;;apjJ.Ot,, A{ oe Na'.:;;apn

Nat ol1at a7tOI1NtvaC,or-rat 1tar-ra -ra iN-ro; TOt'

a7COPPT/'f'O"ftpoz;. A{ oe 7ttpt 'f'a YOrt'f'a '.:;;ewprtn

NaL re erepyezat 'tat' 11VI1'f'al1tl1tY. A{ oe 'f'OV"fO/JY

11vrazpe11ez; et; -ro aJJ.epzl1ror -rat' JJ.Vrtl1tl1zr.

A{ oe a7tAat 'TO/JY a7tAO/JY ttOO/JY avro!fJtat rat~

t7to7tTetaz;. And here I can not refrain from noticing, with indignation mingled with pity, the ignorance and arrogance of modern critics, who pretend that this distribution of the virtues is entirely the invention of the latter Platonists, and without any fom_tdation in the

•


Bacchi'c Mysterz'es. 77

writings of Plato.* And among the supporters of such ignorance, I am sorry to find Fabricius, in his prolegomena to the life of Proclus. For nothing can be more obvious \ to every reader of Plato, than that in his \ Laws he treats of the social and politi~ virtues ; in his Phado, and seventh book of ~ the Republic, of the p~; and in his ) Thaatetus, of the contemplative and sub- !

limer virtues. This observation is, indeed, sol obvious, in the Phado, with respect to the purifying virtues, that no one but a verbal critic could read this dialogue and be insensible to its truth : for Socrate~ in the very beginning expressly asserts, that it is the l)t;s~ess of philosphers . to study to die, and ?\-' to be themselves dead,t and yet at the same

*The writings o~ Augustin handed Neo-Platonism down to posterity as the original and esoteric doctrine of the first followers of Plato. He enumerates the causes which led, in his opinion, to the negative position assumed by the Academics, and to the concealment of their real opinions. He describes Plotinus as a resuscitated Plato.-Again.rt tlu Academics. iii. 17-20.

t PhtZdt>, 21• KtY8VYEVOV61 yap o6oz rvyxaYOV61Y

op5oo> a7tTOJlEYot qnJ..o6otpza> J..El1,15EYat ra> aJ..J..ov>,

OTt ov8EY aJ..J..o avroz E7tiT1,18Evovl5tY , a7to5Y1,16HEZY

n xaz re:f3yayaz. I. e. For as many as rightly apply them-


E!eusz"n£an and

time reprobates_ suicid~..__ What the.!U~-~Q __ such ------a death mean but symbolical or philosophical death ? And what is this but the true--ex-

-- · - - ·- -ercise of t~e virtues which purify ? But these poor men read only superficially, or for the sake o.f displaying some critical acumen in verbal emendations ; and yet with such despicable preparations for philosophical discussion, they have the impudence to oppose their puerile conceptions to the decisions of men of elevated genius and profound investigation, who, happily freed from the danger and drudgery of learning any foreign language,* directed all their attention

selves to philosophy seem to have left others ignorant, that they themselves aim at nothing else th~n to die and to be dead. .

Elsewhere (31) Socrates says : •• While we live, we shall approach nearest to intuitive knowledge, if we hold no communion with the body, except, what absolute necessity requires, nor suffer ourselves to be pervaded by its nature, but purify ourselves from it until God himself shall release us."

* It is to be regretted; nevertheless, that our author had not risked the "danger and drudgery," of learning Greek, so as to have rendered fuller justice to his subject, and been of greater service to his readers. We are conscious that those who are too learned in verbal criticism are prone to overlook the real purport of the text.-A. W.


Bacckic MysterZ:es. 79

without re~traint to the acquisition of the most exalted truth.

It only now remains that we prove, in the~'last place, that a representation of the descent . of the soul fotmed no inconsiderable part of these mystic shows. This, indeed, is doubt- 1

less occultly intimated by Virgil, when speak-ing of the souls of the blessed in Elysium, he adds,

Has omnes, ubi mille rotam volvere per annos, Lethaeum ad fluvium deus evocat agmine magno: Scilicet immemores supera ut convexa revisant, Rursus et incipiant in corpore velle reverti.*

But openly by Apuleius in the following prayer which Psyche addresses to Ceres : Per ego te frugiferam tuam dextram istam deprecor, per lretificas messium crerimonias, per tacita sacra cistarum, et per famulorum tuorum draconum pinnata curricula, et glebre

*"All these, after they have passed away a thousand years, are '1

summoned by the divine one in great array, to the Lethsean river. )., In this way they become forgetful of their former earth-life, and revisit the vaulted realms of the world, willing again to return1

into bodies."


So Eleusinian and

Siculre fulcamina, et currum rapacem, et terram tenacem, et illuminarum Proserpinre nuptiarum demeacula, et cretera qure silentio tegit Eleusis, Atticre sacrarium ; miserandre Psyches animre, supplicis ture, subsiste.* That is, " I beseech thee, by thy fruit-bearing right hand, by the joyful ceremonies of harvest, by the occult sacred rites of thy cistre,t and by the winged car of thy attending dragons, and the furrows of the Sicilian soil, and the rapacious chariot (or car of the ravisher), and the dark descending ceremonies attending the marriage of Proserpina, and the ascending rites which accompanied the lz'ghted return of thy daughter, and by other arcana whz'ch Eleusis the Attz:c sanctuary conceals

. in profound silence, relieve the sorrows of thy wretched supplicant Psyche." For the abduction of Proserpina signifies the descent of the soul, as is evident from the passage previously adduced from Olympiodorus, in

* APULEIUS: Tlu Golden Ass. (Story of Cupid and Psyche),

book vi. t Chests or baskets, made of osiers, in which were enclosed the

mystical images and ·utensils which the ~ninitiated were not permitted to behold.


Bacchz"c .. lfysterz'es. 8 I

• • J I /;' whtch he says the soul descends Concally ; *~ -u. ~ d~<¥1 and this is confirmed by the authority of the philosopher Sallust, who observes, " That the abduction of Proserpina is fabled to have taken place about the opposite equinoctial ; and by this the descent of s~uls [into earth-life J is implied." Jlepz yovr f'7'/Y erarnar uJrt-

;upzar .,. f'rt' Koprt' ap?r«yrt )JV5:io'Aoyezf'az yerE~-

5:iaz, o 071 xa5:iooo' e~n rror f/ltllxror. t And as ) the abduction of Proserpina was exhibited in / the dramatic representations of the M yste-; ;./ ries, as is clear from Apuleius, it indisputa-bly follow~ that this represented the descent of the soul, and its union with the dark tene-ment of the body. Indeed, if the ascent and descent of the soul, and its condition while connected with a material nature, were rep-resented in the dramatic shows of the M ys-teries, it is evident that this was implied by the rape of Proserpina. And the former part of this assertion is manifest from Apu-leius, when describing his initiation, he says,

* I. e. ·as to death ; analogously to the descent of Korc!-Persesephonc! to the Underworld.

t De Diis et .Mundo, p. zsr. 6


E leus£n£an and

in the passage already adduced : " I approached the confines of death, and ~aving trodden on the threshold of Proserpina, I returned, hav£ng been carr£ed through all the elements." And as to the latter part, it has been amply proved, from the highest authority, in the first division of this discourse.

Nor must the reader be disturbed on finding that, according to Porphyry, as cited by Eusebius,* the fable of Proserpina alludes to seed placed in the ground ; for this is likewise true of the fable, considered. according to its material explanation. But it will be proper on this occasion to rise a little higher, and consider the various species of fables, according to their philosophical arrangement :. since by this means the present subject will receive an additional elucidation, and the wisdom of the ancient authors of fables will be vindicated from the unjust aspersions of ignorant declaimers. I shall present the reader, therefore, with the following interesting division of fables, from the elegant book

* Evang. Prapar. book iii. chap. 2.

Digitized by Coogle

Bacch£c Mysteries.

of the J>latonic philosopher Sallust, on the gods and the universe. . 11 Of fables," says h~e 11 some are theological, others physical, others animastic (or relating to soul) others material, and lastly, others mixed from thes Fables are theological which relate to nothing corporeal, but contemplate the very essences of the gods; such as the fable which asserts that Saturn devoured his children : for it insinuates notqing more than the)' nature of an intellectual (or intuitional) god; §ince every such intellect returns into itself. We regard fables physically when we speak) concerning the operations of the gods about the world ; as when considering Saturn th~ same as Time, and calling the parts of time( the children of the universe, we assert thatj the children are devoured by their parent! But we utter fables in a spiritual mode, when we contemplate the operations of the soul ; because the intellections of our souls, though by a discursive energy they go forth into other things, yet abide in their parents. Lastly, fables are material, such as the Egyp- ) tians ignorantly employ, considering and/


' •,,

'

E leus£nian and

, calling corporeal natures. divinities: such as Isis, earth, Osiris, humidity, Typhon, heat : or, again, denominating Saturn water, Adonis, fruits, and Bacchus, wine. And, indeed, to_ ~ssert that these are dedicated to the go_ds, in the same manner as herbs, stones, and animals, is the p_~ of wise men ; b~- to call t!Jem gods is alone the province of fool~~Dcl ~admen ; unless we speak in the s~un~ - manner as when, from established custom, we call the orb of tqe sun and its rays the sun itself. But we may perceive the mixed kind of fables, as well in many other particulars, as when they relate, that Discord, at a banquet of the gods, threw a golden apple, and that a dispute about it arising among the god,desses, they were sent by Jupiter to take the judgment of Paris, who, charmed with the beauty of Venus, gave her the apple in preference to the rest. For in this fable the banquet denotes the super-mundane powers -of the gods; and on this account they subsist in conjunction with each other: but the golden apple denotes the world, which, on

· .account of its composition from contrary

Digitized by Coogle

Bacchic Mysteries.

natures, is not improperly said to be thr9wn by Discord, or strife. But again, since different gifts are imparted to the world by dif- , ferent gods, they appear to contest with each other for the apple. And a soul living ac-\ cording to sense (for this is Paris), not per-: ceiving other powers in the universe, asserts! that the apple is alone the beauty of Venus.: But of these species of fables, such as are theological belong to' philosophers ; the physical and spiritual to poets; but the mz'xed to\ the first of the z'nz'tt.'atory rz'tes (u;\e-rai'); ) sz'nce the z'ntentz'on of all mystz''c ceremon-ies z's to conjoz'n us wz'th the world and the gods."

Thus far the excellent Sallust : from 'Y-l.!ence it is eviqent, that the fable of-Proscrpina, as belonging to the Mysteries, is properly of a mixed nature, or composed~ from all the four species of fables, the theological [spiritual or psychical], and material. But in order to understand this divine fable, it is requisite to know, that according to the arcana of the ancient theology, the



Corle* order (or the order belonging to \ Proserpina) is twofold, one part of which is \ .super-mundane, subsisting with Jupiter, or

the Demiurgus, and thus associated with him establishing one artificer of divisible natures ; but the other is mundane, in which Proserpina is said to be ravished by Pluto, and to

' animate the extremities of the universe. · " Hence," says Proclus, " according to the statement of theologists, who delivered to us the most holy Mysteries, she [Proserpina] abides on high in those dwellings of her mother which she prepared for her in inaccessible places, exempt from the sensible world But she likewise dwells beneath with Pluto, administering terrestrial concerns, governing the recesses of the earth, supplying life to the extremities of the universe, and imparting soul to beings which are rendered by her inanimate and dead."

. Kat yap ~ 'rotJY !feo;\oyoov C/)1/JM'/, l"otJY l"a' ayzoo

-ral"ai ~J.ltY EY E;\evl!&vz n;\nai 1tapaoeooo1to-

-roov, avoo, J.I.EY aVT'1fY lY l"Ot' J.l1fl" po' Ol1tOt'

• Corle from Kof111, Korl, a name of Proserpina. The name is derived by E. Pococke from the Sanscrit Goure.


Bacch£c Mysteries.

pevew (/11/~tv, ov' 7} J.lT/'fr/P av-r11 Ha-rt~Htva~Ev ~y afJa-roz~ eeT/PT/J.lEYOV~ -rov 1tav-ro,, Kan:v 8E

pE-ra IIJ..oV'rQ')YO' 'rQ')Y x.9'oYtQ')Y t1tapxezv, Hal

TOV~ 'rT/~ Y'l~ J.lVXOV~ E1tZ'rp01tEVElY1 Hat ~~y

~11. OpEyEZY 'rOt~ EXa'rOZ' 'rOV 1taY'r0~1 Hat f/JVXT/~ , J.tE-ratSztSovaz -roz~ 1tap taV'rQ')Y a¢vxoz~ Hat ve-

Hpoz~.• Hence we may easily perceive that'! this fable is of the mixed kind, one part of \ which relates to the super-mundane establishment of the secondary cause of life,t and the other to the procession or outgoing of life and soul to the farthest extremity of things. Let us therefore more attentively consider the fable, in that part of it which is symbolical of the descent of souls ; in order to which, it will be requisite to premise an abridgment of the arcane discourse, respecting the wanderings of Ceres, as preserved by Minutius Felix. " Proserpina," says he, "the

*PROCLUS: Tluology of Plato, p. 371.

t Plotinus taught the existence of three hypostases in the Divine Nature. There was the Demiurge, the God of Creation and Providence ; the Second, the Intelligible, self-contained and immutable Source of life ; and above all, the One, who like the Znvanl Am~ of the Persians, is above all Being, a pure will, an Absolute Love-" Intellect."-A. W.


88 Eleusz'nz'an and

daughter of Ceres by Jupiter, as she was

gathering tender flowers, in the new spring, was ravished from her delightful abodes by Pluto; and being carried from thence through thick woods, and over a length of sea, was brought by Pluto into a cavern, the residence of departed spirits, over whom she afterward ruled with absolute sway. But Ceres, upon discovering the Joss of her daughter, with lighted torches, and begirt with a serpent, wandered over the whole earth for the purpose of finding her till she came to Eleusis ; there she found her daughter, and also taught to the Eleusinians the cultivation of corn." Now in this fable Ceres represents the evolution of that intuitional part of onr nature which we properly denominate z'ntel-

. lect,* (or the unfolding of the intuitional ' faculty of the mind from its quiet and col-lected condition in the world of thought) ;

*Also denominated by Kant, Pur~ r~asun, and by ProT. Cocker, Intuitiv~ reason. It was considered by Plato, as "not amenable to the conditions of time and space, but, in a particular sense, as dwelling in eternity : and therefore capable of beholding eternal realities, and coming into communion with absolute beauty, and goodness, and truth-that is, with God, the Absolute Being."


Baechle Myster-ies.

and Proserpt"na that living, self-moving, and)\ animating part which we call soul. But lest this comparing of unfolded intellect to Ceres should seem ridiculous to the reader, unacquainted with the Orphic theology, it is necessary to inform him that this goddess, from her inti~ate union with Rhea, in conjuncction with whom she produced Jupiter, is evidently of a Satumian and zoogonic, or in.:. tellectual ·and vivific rank; and hence, as we are informed by the philosopher Sallust, among the mundane divinities she is the deity of the planet Saturn.* So that in con- ' sequence of this, our intellect (or intuitive faculty) in a descending state must aptly symbolize with the divinity of Ceres. But PJuto signifies the whole of a material n_a!~re; since the empire of this god, according to Pythagoras, commences downward from the Galaxy or milky way. And the cavern '5ignifies the entrance, as it were, into

* Hence we may perceive the reason why Ceres as well as Saturn was denominated a l~gis!ativ~ deity; and why illuminations were used in the celebration of the Saturnalia, as well as in v the Eleusinian Mysteries.


Eleusz'nian and

'the profundities of such a nature,_ which is · accomplished by the soul's union with this

~ terrestrial body. But in order to understand perfectly the secret meaning of the other parts of this fable, it will be necessary to give a more explicit detail of the particulars attending the abduction, from the beauti-ful poem of Claudian on this subject. From

1 this elegant production we learn that Ceres, who was afraid lest some violence should be

/ offered to Proserpina, on account of her in/ imitable beauty, conveyed her privately to 1 Sicily, and concealed her in a house built on

purpose by the Cyclopes, while she herself directs her course to the temple of Cybele,

l the mother of the gods. Here, then we see ( the first cause of the soul's descent namely ) the abandoning of a life wholly according to I

) the higher intellect •. which is occul~ly si.gni-fied by the separatiOn of Proserpma from

\ Ceres. Afterward, we are told that Jupiter instructs Venus to go to this abode, and be-tray Proserpina from her retirement, that PI_uto may be · enabled to carry her aw~ ; and to prevent any suspicion in the virgin's

- -~----- - .


Bacch£c Myster£es.

min~, he commands Diana and Pallas to go

i~-~-ompany. The three goddesses ariving, ) find Proserpina at work on a scarf for · her mother; in which she had embroidered the primitive chaos, and the formation of the world. NOV! by Venus in this part of the narration we must undertand des£re, which, even in the celestial regions (for such is the residence of Proserpina till she is ravished by Pluto), begins silently and stealthily to creep into the recesses of the soul. By Minerva we must conceive the ratt:onal pow~~ of the soul, and by Diana, nature, or the merely natural and vegetable part of our composition ; both which are now ensnared through the alllirements of desire. And lastly, the\ wwin which Proserpina had displayed all the fair variety of the material world, beautifully represents the commencement of the / illusive operations through which the soul becomes ensnared with the beauty of imagin- · ative forms.-But let us for a while attend to the poet's elegant description of her employment and abode :

Digitized by Coogle

Eleusinian and

Devenere locum, Cereris quo tecta nitebant Cyclopum firmata manu. Stant ardua ferro Mrenia; ferrati postes: immensaque nectit Claustra chalybs. Nullum tanto sudore Pyracmon, Nee Steropes, construxit opus: nee talibus unquam Spiravere neat is animre: nee flumine tanto Incoctum maduit lassa fornace metallum. Atria vestit ebur : trabibus solidatur aenis Culmen, et in celsas surgunt electra columnas. Ipsa domum tenero mulcens Proserpina cantu Irrita texebat rediturre munera matri. Hie elementorum seriem sedesque paternas

Jnsignibat acu: veterem qua lege tumultum Discrevit natura parens, et semina justis Discessere locis: quidquid !eve fertur in altum:

In medium graviora cadunt : incanduit rether : Egit flamma polum : fluxit mare : terra pependit Nee color unus inest. Stellas accendit in auro. Ostro fundit aq uos, attollit litora gemmis, Filaque mentitos jam jam crelantia fluctus Arte tument. Credas illidi cautibus algam, Et raucum bibulis inserpere murmur arenis. Add it quinque plagas: mediam subtemine rubro Obsessam fervore notal : squalebat adustus Limes, et assiduo sitiebant stamina sole. Vitales utrimque duas ; quas mitis oberrat Temperies habitanda viris. Tum fine supremo Torpentes traxit geminas, brumaque perenni

Freda!, et reterno contristat frigore telas. • Nee non et patrui pingit sacraria Ditis, Fatalesque sibi manes. Nee defuit omen. Pnescia nam subitis maduerunt fletibus ora.

.~

~·


Bacchz"c Myster£es. 93

After this, Proserpina, forgetful of her parent's commands, is represented as venturing from her retreat, through the treacherous persuasions of Venus:

Impulit J onios prremisso lumine ftuctus Nondum pura dies: tremu!is vibravit in undis Ardor, et errantes ludunt per crerula ftammre. Jamque audax animi, fidreque oblita parentis, Fraude Dionrea riguos Proserpina saltus (Sic Parcre voluere) petit.---

And this with the greatest propriety : . for! · oblivion necessarily follows a remission of in- ', tellectual action, and is as necessarily attended with the allurements of desire.* Nor 1

* When the person turns the back upon his higher faculties, ', and disregards the communications which he receives through 1

them from the world of unseen realities, an oblivion ensues of : ·

their existence, and the person is next brought within the province ( and operation of lower and worldly ambitions, such as love of power, passion for riches, sensual pleasure, etc. This is a descent,

fall. or apostasy of the soul,-a separation from the sources of J divine life and ravishment into the region of moral death.

In the Phadrus, in the allegory .of t~e Chariot and.Winged,..::~·

Steeds, Plato represents the lower or mfenor part of mans nature ·.

as dragging the soul down to the earth, and subjecting it to the slavery of corporeal conditions. Out of these conditions there arise numerous evils, that disorder the mind and becloud the reason, for evil is inhe1ent to the condition of finite and multiform


94 E lezesz'n£an and

is her dress less symbolical of the acting of the soul in such a state, principally according to the energies and promptings of imagination and nature. For thus her garments are beautifully described by the poet:

Quas inter Cereris proles, nunc gloria matris, Mox dolor, requali tendit per gramina passu, Nee membris nee honore minor; potuitque Pallas, si clipeum, si ferret spicula, Phrebe. Collectre tereti nodantur jaspide vest<:$. Pectinis ingenio nunquam felicior arti Contigit eYentus. Nullre sic consona telre Fila, nee in tantum veri duxere figuram. Hie Hyperionis Solem de semine nasci Fecerat, et pariter, sed forma dispare lunam, Aurorre noctisque duces. Cunabula Tethys

being into which we have "fallen by our own fault." The present earthly life is a fall and a punishment. The soul is now dwelling in "the grave which we call the body." In its incorporate staite, and previous to the discipline of education, the rational element is " asleep." "Life is more of a dream than a reality." Men are utterly the slaves of sense, the sport of phantoms and illusions. We now resemble those" captives chained in a subterraneous cave," so poetically described in the seventh boo~ of The R~u/Jiic; their backs are turned to the light, and consequently they see but the shadows of the objects which pass behind them, and "they attribute to these shadows a perfect realjty." Their sojourn upon earth is thus a dark imprisonment in the body, a dreamy exile from their proper home."-C~~t:ket's Gt'eek P/t.ilosoplly.


Bacchz'c Mysterz'es.

Pr.ebet, et infantes gremio solatur anhelos, Creruleusque sinus roseis radiatur alumnis. Invalidum dextro portat Titana lacerta Nondum luce gravem, nee pubescentibu alte Cristatum radiis : prirno clernentior revo Fingitur, et tenerurn vagitu de~puit ignem. Lreva parte soror vitrei libamina potat Uberis, et parvo signatur tempora cornu.

95

In which description the sun represents the phantasy, and the moon nature, as is well known to every tyro in the Platonic philosophy. They are likewise, with great propriety, described in their infantine state: for these energies do not arrive to perfection previous to the sinking of the soul into the dark receptacle of matter. After this we behold her issuing on the plain with Minerva and Diana, and attended by a beauteous train of nymphs, who are evident symbols of world of generation,* and · are, therefore, the proper companions of the soul about to fall into its fluctuating realms.

But the design of Proserpina, in venturing

*PORPHYRY: Cav~ of the N7mplls. In the later Greek. YVJ.ltp'T/ signified a bride.

Digitized by Coogle

E leusz'nz'an and

·from her retreat, is beautifully significant of her approaching descent: for she rambles

' , from home for the purpose of gathering ! flowers ; and this in a lawn replete with the i most enchanting variety, and exhaling the

most delicious odors. This is a manifest ·- - - - - - -----~-----· -- ·

image of the soul operating principa!ly ac-~ording -to the natural and extemal__Jjf~ _

land so becoming effeminated and ensnared through th'e delusive attractions of sensible form. ¥inerva (the rational faculty in this

\ - - --

case), likewise gives herself wholly to __ the _ dangerous employment, and abandons the proper characteristics of her nature for the destructive revels of desire.

· All which is thus described with the utmost elegance by the poet :

Fonna loci superat flores : curvata tumore Parvo planities, et mollibus edita clivis

Creverat in collem. Vivo de pumice fontes Roscida mobilibus lamhebant gramina rivis. Silvaque torrentes ramorum frigore soles Temperat, et medio brumam sibi vindicat restu. Apta fretis abies. bellis accomoda cornus, Quercus amica Jovi, tumulos tectura cupressus,


Bacchic Mysteries.

Ilex plena favis, venturi prcescia Jaurus.

Fluctuat hie dens> crispata cacumine buxus, Hie ederre serpunt, hie pampinus induit ulmos.

Haud procul inde lacus (Pergum dixere Sicani)

Panditur, et nemorum frondoso m•.rgine ciuctus

Vicinis pallescit aquis : admittit in altum

Cernentes oculos, et late pervius humor

Ducit inoffensus liquido S!ib gurgite visus,

Imaque perspicui prodit secreta profundi.

Hue elapsa cohors gaudent per ftorea rura .

Hortarur Cytherea, legant. Nunc ite, soTores,

Dum matutinis prresudat solibus aer:

Dum meus humectat flaventes Lucifer agros, Rotanti prrevectus equo. Sic fata, doloris

Carpit signa sui. Varios tum cretera saltus

lnvasere cohors. Credas examina funJi Hybl<:~!um raptura thymum, cum cerea reges

Castra movent, fagique cava demissus ab alvo

Mellifer electis exercitus obstrepit herbis.

Pratorum spoliatur honos. Hac Iilia fuscis lntexit violis : hanc mollis amaracus ornat :

Hrec graditur stellata rosis ; hrec alba ligustris. Te quoque flebilibu-; mreren>, Hyacinthe, figuris,

Narci~sum1ue metunt, nunc inclita germina veris, Prrestantes olim pueros. Tu natus Amyclis :

Hunc Helicon genuit. Te disci perculit error:

Hunc fontis decepit amor. Te fronte retusa

Deluis, hunc fracta Cephissus arundine luget.

JEstuat ante alias avido fervore legendi

Frugiferre spes una Dere. Nunc vimine texto

Ridentes calathos spoliis agrestibus imp let;

Nunc sociat flores, seseque ignara coronat.

7

97

..


~8 Eleus£nian and

Augurium fatale tori. Quin .ipsa tubarum Annorumque potens, dextram qua fortia turbat Agmina; qua stabiles portas et mreuia vellit,' Jam levibus laxat studiis, hastamque reponit, Insoli tisque docet galeam mitescere sertis. Ferratus lascivit apex, horrorque recessit Martius, et cristre pac~tto fulgure vernant. Nee qure Parthenium canibus scrutatur odorem, Aspernata choros, libertatemque comarum Injecta tantum voluit frenare corona.

But there is a circumstance relative to the narcissus which must not be passed over in silence: I mean its being, according to Ovid, the metamorphosis of a youth who fell a victim to the love of his own corporeal form ; the secret meaning of which most admirably accords with the rape of Proserpina, which, according to Homer, was the immediate consequence of gathering this wonderful flower.* For by Narcissus falli11g in love with his shadow in the limpid stream

/ * HOMKR: Hymn to C~ru. "We were plucking the pleasant 1 flowers, the beauteous crocus, and the Iris, and hyacinth, and

the narcissus, which like the crocus, the wide earth produced. I } was plucking them with joy, when the earth yawned beneath, and I out leaped the Strong King, the Many-Receiver, and went bear\ ing me, grieving much, beneath the earth in his golden chariot,

\ and I cried aloud."

. Digitized by Goog I e

Bacchic Myster£es. 99

we may behold an exquisitely apt representation of a soul vehemently gazing on the flowing condition of a material body, and in consequence of this, becomin~ enamored with a corporeal life, which is nothing more than the delusive image of the true man, or the rational and immortal soul. Hence, by1

1

an immoderate attachment to this unsubstan- ~

tial mockery and gliding semblance of the , real soul, such an one becomes, at length, i wholly changed, as far as is possible to his j

. nature, into a vegetive condition of being, into a beautiful but transient flower, that is, into a corporeal life, or a life totally consisting in the mere operations of nature. Pro-

~ ..

~e!Qina, therefore, or the soul, at the very instant of her descent into matter, is, with the utmost propriety, represented as eagerly engaged in plucking this fatal flower; for , her faculties at this period · are entirely oc- 1

cupied with a life divided about the fluctuat:) ing condition of body.

After this, Pluto, forcing his passage· through the earth. seizes on .. P!oserpina,.

.,...,,. .. . , ... ·. ·'

'"·''r-',-1· r . ' ,-,



:and carries her away with him, notwithstanding the resistance of Minerva ·-:-an_d--_ Diana. They, indeed, are forbid by Jupiter_, who in this place signifies Fate, to att~_.

her deliverance. By this resistance of Mi'nerva and Diana no more is signified than that the lapse of the soul into a material nature is contrary to the genuine wish and proper condition, as well of the corporeal life depending on her essence, as of her true and rational nature. Well, therefore, may the soul, in such a situation, pathetically exdaim with Proserpina :

0 male dilecti flores, ciespectaque matris Consilia: 0 Veneris deprensre serius artes ! *

But, according to Minutius Felix, Proserpina \; was carried by Pluto through thick woods,

.and over a length of sea, and brought into a -cavern, the residence of th~ de~d : where by woods a ~ateriaT-I1ature is plai~ly implied, as we have already observed in the first part of this discourse ; and where the reader may

* Oh flowers fatally dear, and the mother's cnutions despised: {)h cruel arts _of cunning V ~n~s !



likewise observe the agreement of the descdption in this particular with that of Virgil in the descent of his hero :

----Tenent media omnia rilv~ Cocytusque sinuque labens, circumvenit atro. *

In these words the woods are expressly mentioned ; and the ocean has an evident agreement with Cocytus, signifying the outflowing condition of a material nature, and the sorrows and sufferings attending its connection with the soul.

Pluto hurries Proserpina into the infernal) regions: in other words, the soul is sunk into the profound depth and darkness of a material nature. A description of her marriage next succeeds, her union with the dark tenement of the body:

]lUll suus inferno processerat Hesperus orbi Ducitur in thalamum virgo. Stat pr~muba: juxta Stellantes Nox picta sinus. tangensque cubile Omina perpetuo genitalia federe sancit.

*"Woods cover all the middle space, and Cocytus gliding on, surrounds it with his dusky bosom."


102 Eleus£n£an and

Night is with great beauty and propriety introduced as standing by the nuptial couch,

1and confirming the oblivious league. For J the soul through her union with a material

) body becomes an inhabitant of darkness, and subject to the empire of night ; in conse-

:~, quence of which she dwells wholly with de) lusive phantoms, and till she breaks her fet

:, ters is deprived of the intuitive perception of ' that which is real and true.

In the next place, we are presented with the following beautiful and pathetic description of Proserpina appearing in a dream to Ceres, and bewailing her captive and miserable condition :

Sed tunc ipsa, sui jam non ambagibus ullis Nuntia, materna facies ingesta sopori. Namque videbatur tenebroso obtecta recessu Carceris, et srevis Proserpina vincta catenis, Non qualem roseis nuper convallibus .tEtnre Suspexere Dere. Squalebat pulcrior auro Cresaries, et nox oculorum infecerat ignes. Exhaustusque gelu pallet rubor. Ille superbi Flammeus oris honos, et non cessura pruinis Membra colorantur picei caligine regni. Ergo hanc ut dubio vix tandem agnosce~ visu


Bacch£c Mystert'es.

Evaluit: cujus tot prenre criminis? in quit. Unde hrec informis macies? Cui tanta facultas In me srevitire est? Rigidi cur vincula ferri Vix aptanda feris moUes meruere lacerti? Tu, mea tu proles? An vana fallimur umbra?

103

Such. indeed, is the wretched situation of the soul when profoundly merged in a corporeal nature. She _not only becomes captive and fettered, but loses all her original splendor;-she is defiled with the impurity of mat~er; and the sharpness of her rational sight is }>lunted and dimmed through the thick darkness of a material night. The reader may observe how Proserpina, being represented as confined in the dark recess of a prison, and bound with fetters, confirms the explanation of the fable here given as symbolical of the descent of the soul ; for such, as we have already largely proved, is the condition of the ·soul from its union with the body, according to the uniform testimony of the most ancient philosophers and priests.*

* Mantds, f,laYTtt$, not iepet$. The term is more commonly translated prophets, and actually signifies persons g1fted with divine insight, through being in an entheastic condition, called also mania or divine fury.



After this, the wanderings of Ceres for the discovery of Proserpina commence. She is described, by Minutius Felix, as begirt with a serpent, and bearing two lighted torches in her hands ; but by Claudian, instead of being girt with a serpent, she commences her search by night in a car drawn by dragons. But the meaning of the allegory is the same in each ; for both a serpent and a dragon are

{ emblems of a divisible life subject to transi! tions and changes, with which, in this case, ~our intellectual (and diviner) part becomes·

-connected : since as these animals put off their skins, and become young again, so the divisible life of the soul, falling into generation, is rejuvenized in its subsequent

1 career. But what emblem can more beau-1 tifully represent the evolutions and out\ goings of an intellectual nature into the ;\ regions of sense than the ~ anderings of i Ceres by the light of torches through the ; darkness of night, and continuing the pursuit \still she proceeds into the depths of Hades

J\ itself? For the intellectual part of the soul,* * " The soul is a composite nature, is on one side linked to the


Bacchz"c Myster-ies. 105

when it verges towards body, enkindles, in) deed, a light in its dark receptacle, but becomes itself situated in obscurity: and, a P~cJus -~omewhere divinely observes, tpe Il!9J1:al nature by this means participates of t~e <Jivin~ intellect, but the intellectual part is drawn down to death. The tears and lamen-') t~ns - too, o( Ceres, in her course, are sym- f

I

bolical both of the providential operations of : intellect about a mortal nature, and the mise-' dV ries with which such operations are (with re.spect to imperfect souls ljke ours) attended .. Nor is it without reason that Iacchus, ot Bacchus, is celebrated by Orpheus as the companion of her search : for Bacchus is the evident symbol of the imperfect energies of intellect, and its scattering into the obscure an lamentable dominions of sense.

But our explanation' will receive addition-

eternal world, its essence being generated of that ineffable element which constitutes the real, the immutable. and the permanent. It is a beam of the eternal Sun, a spark of the Divinity, an emanation from God. On the other hand, it is linked to the phenomenal or sensible world, its emotive part being formed of that which is relative and phenomenal. "-Cocker.


•

•

106 Eleusz'nz."an and

al strength, from considering th.at t~~-?e

s_acred rites occupied the space of nine dl!Y_s . m their cele!:lra~ion ; and this, doubtless, because, according to Homer,* this goddess did not discover the residence of her daughter till the expiration of that period. For the soul, in falling from her original and ~~vine abode in the heavens, passed through eight spheres, namely, the fixed or inerratic sphere, and the seven planets, assuming a different body, and employing different faculti_es in each; and becomes connected with the sublunary world and a terrene body! as t:iie_ nintli:-and most abject gradation of her ~esc_ent. Hence the first day of initiation into these mystic rites was called agurmos, t: e. accordding to Hesychius, ekklesi'a et 1tav -ro ayezpo

pevov, an assembly, and all collec#ng together : and this with the greatest propriety ; for, according to Pythagoras, " the people of

( * Hymn to c~s. "For nine days did holy Demeter perambulate the earth • • and when the ninth shining mom had come, Hecate met her, bringing news."

Apuleius also exptains that at the initiation into the Mysteries of Isis the candidate was enjoined to abstain from luxurious food for ten days, from the flesh of animals, and from wine.


Bacchz'c Mysterz'es. 107

dreams are souls collected together m the Galaxy.* A1!flO~ oe orezpuw xara Ilv!:tayopar

a{ ¢vxaz, a~ <rvraye<r!:taz lfJ1!<1l'Y ez~ ror yaAa-

5zar.f. And from this part of the heavens souls first begin to descend After this, the soul falls from the tropic of Cancer into the planet Saturn ; and to this the second day of initiation was consecrated, which they called AA.aoe flV<rraz, ["to the sea, ye initi- l ated ones!"] because, says Meursius, on that 1

day the crier was accustomed to admonish the mystre to betake themselves to the sea. Now the meaning of this will be easily understood, by considering that, according to the arcana of the ancient theology, as may be learned from Proclus,t the whole planetary I system is under the dominion of Neptune ; and this too is confirmed by Martianus Ca- \ pella, who describes the several planets as so many streams. Hence when the soul falls into the planet Saturn, which Capella compares to a river voluminous, sluggish, and

* Only persons taking a view solely external will suppose the galaxy to be literary the milky belt of stars in the sky.

t Cav~ of tlu Nymphs. t TMology of Plato, book vi.



cold, she then first merges herself into fluctuating matter, though purer than that of a sublunary nature, and of which water is an

1 ancient and significant symbol.. Besides, the I sea is an emblem of purity, as is evident from the Orphic hymn to Ocean, in which that deity is called ~Ecvv ayvuJp.a p.eyurrov, theon agnz"sma megz"ston, i.e. the greatest purijier of the gods: and Saturn, as we have already observed, is pure [intuitive] intellect. And what .still more confirms this observation is, that Pythagoras, as we are informed by Porphyry, in his life of that philosopher, symbolically called the sea a tear of Saturn. But

fthe eighth day of initiation, which is symbol! ical of the falling of the soul into the lunar . orb,* was celebrated by the candidates by a ; repeated £n£t£at£on and second sacred rites ~

'< \ because the soul in this situation is about to I

; bid adieu to every thing of a celestial nature ; : to sink into a perfect oblivion of her divine \origin and pristine felicity ; and to rush pro-

* The Moon typified the mother of gods and men. The soul descending into the lunar orb thus came near the scenes of earthly existence, where the life which is transii).itted by generation has. opportunity to involve it about.



foundly into the region of dissimilitu,de,* ignorance, and error. And lastly, on the E.~~~- -~ay, when the soul falls into .. the subl lunary world and becomes united with a ter-\ res trial body, a libation was performed, such '1 as is usual in sacred rites. Here the initiates, j filling two earthen vessels of broad and spa-/ cious bottoms, which wen~ called 7rA'!J.wxoal,

plemokhoa£, and xorvAv(fxoz, kotul£sko£, the \former of these words denoting vessels of a conical shape, and the latter small bowls or cups sacred to Bacchus, they placed one towards the east, and the other towards the west. And the first of the-;e-w~s doubtless, according to the interpretation of . Proclus ~ -~ sacred to the earth, and symbolical of the : soul proceeding from an orbicular figure, or.' divine form, into a conical defluxion and _ ter-, rene situation : t hut the other was sacred to 1

· the soul, and symbolical of its celestial origin; since our intellect is the legitimate progeny of Bacchus. And this too was occultly

* The condition most unlike the former divine estate. t An orbicular figure symbolized the matem~l, and a cone the

masculine divine Energy.


IIO E leu sinian a1td

signified by the position of the earthen ves:.. sels ; for, according to a mundane distribution of the divinities, the eastern center of the universe, which is analogous to fire, belongs to Jupiter, who likewise governs the fixed and inerratic sphete ; and the western to

( Pluto, who governs the earth, because the west is allied to earth on account of its dark and nocturnal nature.*

, Ag.lin, according to Clemens Alexandri/ nus, the following confe~i.on was made by I the new initiate in these sacred rites, in an, swer to the interrogations of the Hierophant:: "I have fasted; I have drank the Cyceon; t I have taken out of the Cista, and placed what I have taken out into the Calathus ~ and alternately I have taken out of the Calathu& and put into the Cista." Ktft1'rt To <Jvv

!3'1'/J.l« EA.EV<JtYtciW J.lV<1TTfptoov. EvTft1Too<Ja• E7r:t

ov TOY 1tvHEGJYa' EAa/JOY EH Htt!TTf'' Epyaf!a-

* PRoCLUS: Tneo/Qgy of PlaiD, book vi. c. IO.

t HoMER: Hymn ID Ceru. "To her Metaneira gave a cup of sweet wine, but she refused it; but bade· her to mix wheat and water with pounded pennyroyal. Having made the mixture, ~he gave it to the goddess.:•


Bacchzc Mysterz"es. III

pevo)a7tES'EJ-lT/Y El' xaA.a.9'ov, xat ex xaA.aS'ou Ez)

xzo--r77v. But as this pertains to a circum~, stance attending the wanderings of Ceres, which formed the most mystic and emblematical part of the ceremonies, it is necessa to adduce the follo~i.ng arcane narration, summarily collected fro~ the writings of -b-ppbius : "The goddess Ceres, when searching through the earth for her daughter, in the course of her wanderings arrived at the boundaries of Eleusis, in the Attic region, a place which was then inhabited by a people called Autochthones, or descended from the earth, whose names were as follows: Baubo and Triptolemus; Dysaules, a goatherd ; Eubulus, a keeper of swine ; and Eumolpus, a shepherd, from whom the race of the Eumolpidre descended, and the illustrious name of Cecropi~re was derived ; and who afteiivard flourished as bearers of the caduceus, hierophants, and criers belonging to the sacred rites. Baubo, therefore, who was of the female . sex, received Ceres, wearied with complicated evils, as her guest, and endeavored to soothe her sorrows by obsequious


112 E leztsinian and

and flattering attendance. For this purpose she entreated her to pay attention to the refreshment of her body, and placed before her a mt"xed pot£on to assuage "the vehemence of her thirst. But the sorrowful goddess :was averse from her solicitations, and rejected the friendly officiousness of the hospitable dame. The matron, however, who was not easily repulsed, still continued her entreaties, which were as obstinately resisted by Ceres, who persevered in her refusal with unshaken persistency and invincible firmness. But when Bauho had thus often exerted her endeavors to appease the sorrows of Ceres, but without any effect, she, at length, changed her arts, and determined to try if she could not exhilarate, by prodigies (or out-of-the-way expedients), a mind which she was not able to allure by earnest endeavors. For this pur-pose she uncovered that part of her body by which the female sex produces children and derives the appellation of woman.* This she caused to assume a purer appearance, and a smoothness such as is found in the private

* TVY1J, gun~. woman, from yovvo>, guunos, Latin ~unnus.


- . .. ,_,. ... -· ,..__...,__ .. __ ... ... .......__ ... ...... __..~--~-~-~--~---~---- -~· .. --.. ~ --- ·

Bacchic Mysteries. I I 3

parts of a stripling child. She then returns to the afflicted goddess, and, in the midst of those attempts which are usually employed to alleviate distress, she uncovers herself, and exhibits her secret parts ; upon which the gosldess fixed her eyes, and was diverted with the novel method of mitigating the angui~h of sorrow ; and afterward, b~_cpming ~<?~e cheerful through laughter, she assuages her thirst with the mingled potion which she had before despised." Thus far Arnobius ; and the same narration is epitomized by Clemens ,Alexandrinus, who is very indignant at the indecency as he conceives, in the story, and because it composed the arcana of the Eleusinian rites. Indeed as the simple father, with the usual ignorance* of a Christian priest, considered the fable literally, and as designed to promote indecency and lust, we can not wonder at his ill-timed abuse. But ~h_e fact is, this narration belonged to the a1topp17ra, aporrheta, or arcane discourses.!-.'?n account of its mystical meaning, and to pre-

* Uncandidness was more probably the fault of which Clement was guilty.

8

Digitized by Coogle

114 E leust'nt'an and

.-/ vent it from becoming the object of ignorant declamation, licentious perversion, and im-

~- pious contempt. For the purity and excellence of these institutions is perpetually acknowledged even by Dr. Warburton himself, who, in this instance, has dispersed, for a moment, the mists of delusion and intolerant zeal.* ~~s, as Iaf!l_~!ic:hus beautifully ob-

-;:·

,;serves,t "exhibitions of this kind in the M ysi teries were designed to free us from licen: tious passions, by gratifying the sight, and ~ at the same time vanquishing desire, through , the awful sanctity with which these rites •; were accompanied: for," says he, n the_prgp_~

/ way of freeing ourselves from .the passions is, ( fiJ2t, to indulge them with ~noderation, by

which means they become satisfied ; listen, as it were, to persuasion, and may -thus -be -~~tirely removed." t This doctrine is indeed so rational, that it can never be objected to by any but quacks in philosophy and religion.

*Divine Legatitm of Moses, book ii. t " The wisest and best men in the Pagan world are unanimous

in this, that the Mysteries were instituted pure, and proposed the noblest ends by the worthiest means."

~ llfysteries of the Egvptians, Cha/deans, and Assyrians.


Bacch£c Mysteries. I I 5

For as he is nothing more than a quack in medicine who endeavors to remove a htent bodily disease before lie has called it forth externally, and by this means dimin~shed its fury ; so he is nothing more than a pretender in philosophy who attempts to remove the passions by violent repression, instead of moderate compliance and gentle persuasion.

But to return from this disgression, the\ following appears to be the secret meaning \ of this mystic discourse :-The matron Baubo ,. may be considered as a symbol of that passive, womanish, and corporeal life through

which the soul becomes united with this ) earthly body, and through which being at': first ensnared, it descend~d. and, as it were, ! was born into the world of generation, pass- ' ing, by this means, from mature perfection, i

I

splendor and reality, into infancy, darkness, \ and error. Ceres, therefore, or the intel-\ ·

~- - - ·- ····-,\ lectual soul, in the course of her wanderings, \ tllatis, ofher evolutions and goings-forth into . matter, is at length captivated with the arts of Baubo, or a corporeal life, and forgets her

Digitized by Coogle

......

116 Eleusz'n£an and

sorrows, that is, imbibes oblivion of -~

wretched state in the mingled potion which she prepares: the mingled liquor being an· obvious symbol of such a life, mixed imd im. pure, and·, on this account, liable t() _corr_up-:tion and death ; since every thing pure and unmixed is incorruptible and divine. And here it is necessary to caution the

I' reader from imagining, that because, according to the fable, the wanderings of Ceres

: commence after the rape of Proserpina, hence the intuitive intellect descends sub-sequentl.v to the soul, and separate from it. Nothing more is meant by this circumstance than that the diviner intellect, from the su-perior excell~nce of its nature, has in cause,. though not in tim~. a priority to soul ; and

. that on this account a defection and revolt I

' (and descent earthward _from the heavenly condition) commences, from the soul, and afterward takes place in the intellect, yet so that the former descends with the latter tn. inseparable attendance.

From this explanation, then, of the fable,.

Digitized by Coogle

Bacchi'c MysterZ:es. I I 7

we may easily perceive the meaning of the mystic confession, I have fasted/ I have ). drank a m£ngled potz:on, etc. ; for by the · f9rmer part of the assertion, no more is meant than that the higher intellect, preVIOUS to-- imbibing of oblivion through the decept1ve arts of a corporeal life, abstains from all_material concerns, and does not mingle itself (as far as its nature is capable of such abasement) with even the necessary delights of the body. And as to the latter part, it doubtless alludes to the descent of Proser-

>-pma to Hades. and her re-ascent to the abodes of her mother Ceres : that is, to the\ oUtgoing and return of the soul, alternately falling into generation, and ascending thence into the intelligible world, and becoming 1

perfectly restored to her divine and intellectual nature. For the Cista contained the most arcane symbols of the Mysteries, into which it was unlawful for the profane to look: and whatever were its contents,* we

* A golden serpent, an egg, and the phallus. The epopt looking upon these, was rapt with awe as contemplating in the symbols the deeper mysteries of all life, or being of a grosser temper,

,,--", Digitized by Goog e

•

118 EleusinZ:an and

learn from the hymn of Callimachus to Ceres, that they were formed from gold, which, from its incorruptibility, is an evident symbol of an immaterial nature. And as to the Calathus, or basket, this, as we are told by Claudian, was filled with spolz'z's agrestibus, the spoils or fruits of the field, which are manifest symbols of a life c0rporeal and earthly. So that ~he candidate, by confessing that he had taken from the Cista, and placed what he had taken intQ the Calathus, and. the contrary, occultly acl_mowledged the descent of his soul from __ a. condition of being supra-material and immortal, into one material and mortal ; and that, on the contrary, by living according to the p~rity which the Mysteries inculcated, -he should re-ascend to that perfection _QL his nature, from which he had unhappily falle11.t

took a lascivious impression. Thus as a sur, he beheld with the eyes of sense or sentiment ; and the real apocalypse was therefore that made to himself of his own moral life and character.-A. W,

* " Exiled from the true home of the spirit, imprisoned in the body, disordered by passion, and beclouded by sense, the soul has yet longings after that state of perfect knowledge, and purity, and bliss, in which it was first created. Its affinities are still on high.


Bacckic Mysteries. I 19

It only now remains that we consider the last part of this fabulous narration, or arcane discourse. It is said, that after the goddessj Ceres, on arriving at Eleusis, had discovered her daughter, she instructed the Eleusinians in the planting of com: or, according to Claudian, the search of Ceres for her daughter, through the goddess, instructing in the art of tillage as she went, P.roved the occasion of a uniyersal benefit to mankind. Now the

It yearns for a higher and nobler form of life. It essays to rise, but its eye is darkened by sense, its wings are besmeared by passion and lust; it is 'borne downward until it falls upon and attal'hes itself to that which is material and sensual,' and it flounders and grovels still amid the objects of sense. And now, Plato asks : How may the soul be delivered from the illusions of sense, the distempering influence of the body, and the disturbances of passion, which becloud its vision of the real, the good, and the

true?" " Plato believed and hoped that this could be accomplished by

philusophy. This he regarded as a grand intellectual discipline for the purification of the soul. By this it was to be disenthralled from the bondage of sense, and raised into the empyrean of pure thought, • where truth and reality shine forth.' All souls have the faculty of knowing. but it is only by reflection and self. knowledge, anrt intellectual discipline, that the soul can be raised to the vision of eternal truth, goodness, and beauty-that is, to the vision of God.''-COCKER: Christianity and Gruk Pllilusuphy, x. p. 351-2.

_,-..... Digitized by Goog I e

120 Elettsinian and

secret meaning of this will be obvious, by ,r considering that the descent of the superior , intellect into the realms of generated exis. tence becomes, indeed, the greatest benefit

_:<.' \ and ornament which a material nature is \ :apable of receiving : for without this parti\ipation of intellect in the lowest department of corporeal life, nothing but the irrational soul * and a brutal life would subsist in its dark and fluctuating abode, the body. As the

.r art of tillage, therefore, and particularly the : growing of com, becomes the greatest pos-

\ sible benefit to our sensible life, no symbol . can more aptly represent the unparalleled ad: vantages arising from the evolution and pro-cession of intellect with its divine nature into a corporeal life, than the good resulting from agriculture and com : for whatever of horrid and dismal can be conceived in night, supposing it to be perpetually destitute of the friendly illuminations of the moon and stars, such, and infinitely more dreadful, would be

• " It is linked to the phenomenal or sensible world, its emotive part (e7et9VtJ17rtxor) being formed of what is relative and pheno

menal."

Digitized by Goog I e.

Bacchi(: Mysterz'es. 1 2 r

the condition of an earthly nature, if deprived of the beneficient irradiations [ 7Cpo

oooz] and supervening benefits of the diviner life.

A-nd this much for an explanation of the Eleusinian Mysteries, or the history of Ceres :l:!?-<! __ 12.9-~~rpina ; in which it must be remembered that as this fable, according to the excellent observation of Sallust already adduced, is of the mixed kind, though the descent of the soul was doubtless principally alluded to by these sacred rites, yet they likewise occultly signified, agreeable to the nature of the fable, the descending of divinity into the sublunary world. But when we view the fable in this part of its meaning, we must be careful not to confound the nature of a parti'al z'ntellect Nke ours wz'th the one unz'versal and dz'vz'ne. As every thing subsisting about the gods is divine, therefore intellect in the highest degree, and next to this soul, and hence wanderings and abductions, lamentations and tears, can here only signify the participations and providential

Digitized by Goog I e.

122 E !eusZ:nZ:an and

operations of these in inferior natures ; and this in such a manner as not to derogate from the dignity, or impair the perfection, of the divine principle thus imparted. I only add, that the preceding exposition will enable us to perceive the meaning and beauty of the following representation of the rape of Proserpina, from the Heliacan tables of Hieronymus Aleander.* Here, first of all, we behold Ceres in a car drawn by two dragons, and aftt:'rwards, Diana and Minerva, with an inverted calathus at their feet, and pointing out to Ceres her daughter Proserpina, who' is hurried away by Pluto in his car, and is in the attitude of one struggling to be free. Hercules is likewise represented with his club, in the attitude of opposing the violence of Pluto : and last of all, Jupiter is represented extending his hand, as if willing to assist Proserpina in escaping from the embraces of Pluto. I shall therefore conclude this section with the following remarkable passage from Plutarch, which will not only confirm, but be itself corroborated by

* KIRCHER : Obdiscus Pamphilius, page 227.

l

. ...

i

Bacchz'c MysterZ:es. 123

the preceding exposition. • On p.er our t7 7ta

.Aata qJV(flo'Aoyta, xat 1tap EAA1J~t xat BapfJa

pot~, J..oyo~ qr qJVSzxo~ eyxexa'Avp.p.Ero~ p.v~oz~,

ra 1toA.J..a 6z' atrtyp.a-rwr. xaz V7tOYOtGJY E7tt

xpvqJo~, xat }tV~'t1JptW61J~ eeo'Aoyta. Ta 'tE Aa

AOV}tEYa rwr ~tyGJ}tEYGJY ~aqJE~npa -rot~ 7tOA

.Aoz~ EX01'ra. Kat -ra ~tyGJ}tEYa 'tGJY J..aA.OVJ.lEYGJY

v7to7t-ronpa. L177'Aor eo-n, pergit, EY rot~ OpqJt

xot~ E7tE~t, xat rot~ Atyv7tnaxot~ xat iJJpvyzot~

.Aoyo ;. Ma'At~'ta 6E o{ 7tEpt -ra~ 'tEAE'ta~ opyt

a~}tOt, xat -ra 6pwp.Era ~vp.fJoA.zxw~ EY 'tat~

iepovpytaz,, 't1JY rwr 7taA.atwr E}tqJatrat 6ta

rozar.* £.e. "The ancient physiology,f both of the Greeks as the BarbarZ:ans, was nothing else than a discourse on natural subjects, involved or vailed in fables, concealing many things through enigmas and under-meanings, and also a theology taught, in which, after the manner of the M ysteries,t the things spoken were clearer to the multitude than those delivered in silence, and the things delivered in silence were more subject to investigation than what was spoken. This is

*PLUTARCH: Euub. t I. ~. Exposition of the Jaws and operations of Nature. t Mvdr1!pzoo811;, mystery-like.


124 E leusz"nz"an and

manifest from the Orphz'c verses, and the Egyptian and Phrygian discourses. But the orgz'es of £nt't£att:ons, and the symbolical ceremont'es of sacred rt'tes espedally, exh£b£t the understandt'ng had of them by the andents:•


Bacckic Mysterz"es. I25

SECTION II.

OF THE MYSTERIES OF BACCHUS,

. THE Dionysiacal sacred rites instituted by Orpheus,* depended on the follow

ing arcane narration, part of which has been already related in the preceding section,

* Whether Orpheus was an actual living person has been quesrioned by Aristotle ; but Herodotus, Pindar, and other writers, mention him. Although the Orphic system is asserted to have come from Egypt, the internal evidence favors the opinion that it was derived from India, and that its basis is the Buddhistic phil· osophy. The Orphic associations of Greece were ascetic, contrasting markedly with the frenzies, entlw.siasm, and license of the popular rites. The Thracians had numerous Hindu customs. The name Kore is Sanscrit : and Zeus may be the Dyaus of Hindu story. His visit to the chamber of Kor6-Persephoneia (Parasu-pani) in the form of a dragon or naga, and the horns or crescent on the head of the child, are Tartar or Buddhistic. The name Zagreus is evidently C!ztzkra, or ruler of the earth. The Hera who compassed his death is A ira, the wife of Buddba; and the Titans are the Daityas, or apostate tribes of India. The doc

"trine of metempsychosis is expressed by the swallowing of the heart of the murdered child, so as to re-absorb his soul, and bring him anew into existence as the son of Semele. Indeed, all the stories of Bacchus have Hindu characteristics; and his cultus is a part of the serpent worship of the ancients. The evidence appears to ns unequivocal. A. W.


~ / '

Eleus£nian and

and the rest may be found in a variety of authors. " Dionysus, or Bacchus [Zagreus ], while he was yet a boy, was engaged by the Titans, through the stratagems of Juno, in a variety of sports, with which that period of life is so vehemently allured ; imd among the rest, he was particularly captivated with beholding his image in a mirror ; during his admiration of which, he was miserably tom in pieces by the Titans ; who, not content with this cruelty, first boiled his members in water, and afterwards roasted them by the fire. But while they were tasting his flesh thus dressed, Jupiter, roused by the odor, and perceiving the cruelty of the deed, hurled his thunder at the Titans ; but committed the members of Bacchus to Apollo, his brother, that they might be properly interred. And this being performed, Dionysus (whose heart during his laceration was snatched away by Pallas and preserved), by a new regeneration again emerged, and being restored to his pristine life and integrity, he afterwards filled up the number of the gods. But in the mean time, from the


\

Baccht.C Myster-ies. 127

exhalations arising from the ashes of the burning bodies of the Titans, mankind were produced." Now, in order to understand properly the secret -of this narration, it is necessary to repeat the observation already made in the preceding chapter, " that all fables belonging to mystic ceremonies are of the mixed kind :" and consequently the present fable, as well as that of Proserpina, must in one part have reference to the gods, and in the other to the human soul, as the following exposition will abundantly evince :

In the first place, then, by Dionysus, or Bacchus, according to the highest conception of this deity, we understand the spiritual part of the mundane soul; for there are various processions or avatars of this god, or Bacchuses, derived from his essence. But by the Titans we must understand the mundane gods, of whom Bacchus is the highest; by Jupiter, the Demiurgus,* or artificer of

* Plotinua regarded the Demiurgus, or creator, as the god of providen~e, thought, essence, and- power. Above him was the deity of" pure intellect,'' and still higher The One. These three were the hypostases.

•


•

128 Eleusz'nz'an and

the universe; by Apollo, the deity of the Sun, who has both a mundane and supermundane establishment, and by whom . the universe is bound in symmetry and consent,. through splendid reasons and harmonizing power; and, lastly, by Minerva we must understand that original, intellectual, ruling,. and providential deity, who guards and preserves all middle lives* in an immutable condition, through intelligence and a selfsupporting life, and by this means · sustains them from the depredations and inroads of matter. Again, by the infancy of Bacchus at the period of his laceration, the condition of the intellectual nature is implied ; since, according to the Orphic theology, souls, under the government of Saturn,. or Kronos, who is pure intellect or spirituality, instead of proceeding, as now, from youth to age, advance in a retrogade progression from age to youth.t The arts employed by

* Lives which are not conjoined with material bodies, nor yet elevated to the lofty state which is the true divine condition.

t Emanuel Sweden borg says : " They who are in heaven are· continually advancing to the spring of life, and the more thousands of years they Jive, SQ much the more delightful and happy i~


Bacch-ic Mysteries. 129

the Titans, in order to ensnare Dionysus, are symbolical of those apparent and divisible operations of the mundane &'ods, through which the participated intellect of Bacchus becomes, as it were, torn in pieces ; and by the mirror we must understand, in the language of Proclus, the inaptitude of the universe to receive the plenitude of intellectual or spiritual perfection; but the symbolical meaning of his laceration, through the stratagems of Juno, and the consequent punishment of the Titans, is thus beautifully unfolded by Olympiodorus, in his . manuscript Commentary on the Phado of Plato : "The form," says he, " of that which is universal is plucked off, torn in pieces, and scattered into generation ; and Dionysus is the monad of the ,Titans. But his laceration is said to take place through the stratagems of Juno, because this goddess is the supervising

the spring to which they attain, and this to eternity with increments, ccording to the progresses and degrees of love, of charity, and of faith. Women who have died old and worn out with age, yet have lived in faith on the Lord, in charity toward their neighbor, nnd in happy conjugal love with a husband, after a succession of years, come more and more into the flower of youth and adolescence."



guardian of motion and progression ; * and on this account, in the Il£ad, she perpetually rouses and excites Jupiter to providential action about secondary concerns ; and, in another respect, Dionysus is the ephorus or supervising guardian of generation, because he presides over life and death ; for he is the guardian or ephorus of life because of generation, and also of death because wine produces an enthusiastic condition. We become more enthusiastic at the period of dying, as Proclus indicates in the example of Homer who became prophetic [J~aYnJtos] at the time of his death.t They likewise assert, that tragedy

* By progression [1rpoo8os'] is here signified the raying-out, or issuing forth of the soul ; having left the divine or pre-existent life, and come forth toward the human.

t See also PLATO: Pluzdrus, 43· "When I was about to cross the river, the divine and wonted signal was given me--it always. deters me from what I am about to do-and I seemed to hear a voice from this very spot, which would not suffer me to depart before I had purified myself, as if ·I had committed some offense against the Deity. Now I am a prophet, though not a very ~d one : for the soul is in some measure prophetic."

See also SHAXSPEltE: Hmry IV. part I.

"Oh 1 could prophesy, But that the earthy and cold hand of death Lies on my tongue."


Bacchu Myster-ies. 131

and comedy are assigned to Dionysus: comedy being the play or ludicrous representation of life; and tragedy having relation to the pass-ions .and death. The comic writers, therefore, do not rightly call in question the tragedians as not rightly representing Bacchus, saying that such things did not happen to Bacchus. But Jupiter is said to have hurled his thunder at the Titans; the thunder signifying a conversion or changing: for fire naturally ascends ; and hence Jupiter, by this means, converts the Titans to his own essence." ~napa-r-re-raz oe -ro 1ta.9-olov ezoo, EY 't'!f yereo-ez, J-lOYa) oe Tz-raY(){)Y 0 AtOYV-

0'0, . ......---Ka-r' enz{Jov'A:qr oe 'f"7, 'Hpa) ozon 1t~

Y"70'Ero' upopo' ~ .9-eo) 1tat npoooov. .Llzo 1taz

O'VYEX(){)) EY '1''!f D.taO't E~lXYZO''f"70'ZY lXV'f"71 1tlXZ

ozeyopez 'f'OY Ota Et, 7rpOYOtaY 'f'afJY OtVTEproy, .

Kaz yereo-ero' allro) upopo' eo--rir o Llzorvo-o,,

OZO'ft 1tat C,ro.,, 1tlXZ TEAEV'f"l'· Zro"l) J-lEY yap

ecpopo)1 E1fEt0"7 1tat 'f'"7, yEYEO'Ero,, 'fEAEV'f"7' OE

ozon EY.9-0VO'taY 0 OlYM 7(0tEt. Kat nepz 'f'"lY

'fEAEV'f"7Y OE EY.9-0VO'taO''fZ1t(){)'fEpOt ytrOj-lE.9'a, oJ) 0"7AOt o nafl • Of-l"lPlp IIpo1tlo,, J-l«Y-rt1tO) ye

yorro) nepz 'f'"7Y -relev'f'"lY' 1tat 'f"7Y Tpayroozar,.

.,..,...__.-'--_...---··



'JUXt -rrrv 1Uvp.cv8zav aveu,-S"az tpat1z -rep Azovvt1tp.

T17v J.LEY xcvp.cv8taY trazyvtoY ovt1aY -rov fJzoy·

-r17Y 8e -rpaycv8zay 8za -ra traS'17, xaz "f'7Y nA.ev

"t1'/Y· Ovx apa xalcvS' oi XCVJ.LlXOl T'OlS' -rpayzxozS'

eyxalovt1w, roS' J.L'l AtOYVtlzaxozS' OV(fzY, A.eyov

-rES' on ov8ev -rav-ra trpoS' 'TOY AlOYVt10Y. Kepav

voz 8e -rov-rozS' o ZevS', -rov xepav'Yov 817A.ovv-roS'

"t1'/Y E1rlt1T'pOtpEY• 7rVpyap E1rt -ta «YUJ XlYOVJ.LEYa• Etrzt1-rpetpez ovv av-rovS' trpoS' eav-rov. But by the members of Dionysus being first boiled in water by the Titans, and afterward roasted by the fire, the outgoing or distribution of intellect into matter, and its subsequent returning from thence, is evidently implied : for water was considered by the Egyptians, as we have already observed, as the symbol of matter; and fire is the natural symbol of ascending. The heart of Dionysus too, is, with the greatest propriety, said to be preserved by Minerva; for this goddess is the guardian of life, of which the heart is a symbol So that this part of the fable plainly signifies, that while intellectual or spiritual life is distributed into the universe, its principle is preserved entire by the guardian


•


power and providence of the Divine intelligence. And as Apollo is the source of all union and harmony, anti as he is called by Proclus, " the key-keeper of the fountain of life,"* the reason is obvious why the members of Dionysus, which were buried by this deity, again emerged by a new generation, and were restored to their pristine integrity and life. But let it here be carefully observed, that renovation, when applied to the gods, is to be considered as secretly implying the rising of their proper light, and its consequent appearance to subordinate natures. And that punishment, when considered as taking place about beings of a nature superior to mankind, signifies nothing more than a secondary providence over such beings which is of a punishing character, and which subsists about souls that deteriorate. Hence, then, from what has been said, we may easily collect the ultimate design of the first part of this mystic fable ; for it appears to be no other than to represent the manner in which the form of the mundane intellect is

* Hymn tu tile Sun •


134 Eleuslnlan and

divided through the universe ;-that such an intellect (and every one which is total) remains entire during 'its division into parts, and that the divided parts themselves are continually turned again to their source, with which they become finally united. So that illumination from the higher reason, while it proceeds into the dark and rebounding receptacle of matter, and invests its obscurity with the supervening ornaments of divine light, returns at the same time without interruption to the source or principle of its descent.

Let us now consider the latter part of the fable, in which it is said that our souls were formed from the vapors emanating from the ashes of the burning bodies of the ·Titans ; at the same time connecting it with the former part of the fable, which is also applicable in a certain degree to the condition of a partial intellect* like ours. In the first place, then, we are made up from fragments (says OJympiodorus), because, through

* Partial, as being parted from the Supreme Mind.


Bacch£c Myster-ies. 135

falling into generation, our life has proceeded into the most distant and ·extreme division ; and from T£tan£c fragments, because the Titans are the ultimate artificers of things,* and stand immediately next to whatever is constituted from them. But further, •our irrational life is Titanic, by which the rational and higher life is tom in pieces. Hence, when we disperse the Dionysus, or intuitive intellect contained in the secret recesses of our nature, breaking in pieces the kindred and divine form of our essence, and which communicates, as it were, both with things subordinate and supreme, then we become Titans (or apost~tes) ; but when we establish ourselves in union with this Dionysiacal or kindred form, then we become Bacchuses, or perfect guardians and keepers of our irrational life: for Dionysus, whom in this respect we resemble, is himself an ephorus or guardian deity, dissolving at his pleasure the bonds by which the soul is united to the

* The Demiurge or Creator being superior to matter in which is concupiscence and all evil, the Titans who are not thus superior are made the actual artificers.


Eleusini'an and

body, since he is the cause of a parted life. But it is necessary that the passive or feminine nature qf our irrational part, through which we are bound in body, and which is nothing more than the resounding echo, as it ~vere, of soul, should suffer the punishment incurred by descent ; for when the soul casts aside the [divine J peculiarity of her nature, she requires her own, but at the same time a multiform body, that she may again become in need of a common form, which she has lost through Titanic dispersion into matter.

But in order to see the perfect resemblance between the manner in which our souls descend and the dividing of the intuitive intellect by mundane natures, let the reader attend to the following admirable citation from the manuscript Commentary of Olympiodorus on the Phmdo of Plato : -" It is necessary, first of all, for the soul to place a likeness of herself in the body. This is to ensoul the body. Secondly, it is necessary for her to sympathize with the image, as being of like idea. For every external form


Bacchi& Myster£es. 137

or substance is wrought into an identity with its interior substance, through an ingenerated tendency thereto. In the third place, being situated in a ~ivided nature, it is necessary that she should be tom in pieces, and fall into a last separation, till, through the action of a life of purification, she shall raise herself -from the dispersion, loose the bond of sympathy, and act as of herself without the external image, having become established according to the first-created life. The like things are fabled in the example. For Dionysus or Bacchus because his image was formed in a mirror, pursued it, and thus became distributed into e·verything. But Apollo collected him and brought him up ; being a deity of purification, and the true savior of Dionysus; and on this account he is styled in the sacred hymns, Dionusites." 'On oez 1tpooroY V1tO~Yrq~Yaz ElH.OYa rqv tpVXrJY

eavrov EY rep ~Yooparz. Tovro yap e~Yrz tf;vxoo

~Yaz ro ~Yoopa. .tJevrepov oe ~Yvp7taS'ew rep ezooo

Arp, xara rqv opoezoezav. Ilav yap ezoo~ E7tEt

ye'taz Et' 'trJY 7tp0~ EaV'tO 'taVTO'trJ'ta oza rqY

7tpo~ eavro IYVYEVIYlY EJ.ltp,_.rov. Tpzrov EJI 'tCf'


Elensin£an and

J.Upt(f J.U:p ytYOJ.lEY'fY (fVY8za1ta(f!!J-1fYat aV'ft:p1

Hat El' T'OY E(fXaT'OY EH1tE(fElY J.lEpt(fj.lOY • . 'Eoo'

av 8at "t'f' Ha!!tapT't'fH'f' (!,oo'l' (fVYayttpat J.lEY

eaVT''fY a1t0 T'OV (fHOp1tt(/j.lOV1 }.V(f'f 8t "tOY 8t<J

J.lOY T''f' <JV).l'f1ta!:ftta,, npafJa'A.'A.t"tat ot T''fY avtv

T'ov tzaoo'A.ov, Hafff' taVT''fY E(f"foo(fav npoo"tovpyov

t!,oorJY. 'On "fa opoza pv5:7tvt"fat1 Hat tv "ft:p

napaatzypan. •o yap Llzovv(fo,, o"tz -ro ttaoo

Aov tvt!:frJHE T'OO t(f01tT'poo T'OVT'Cf tcpt(f1ttT'O. Kat

ovT'oo' tt' 1:0 nav EJ.ltpz(ffff'f. '0 8t Ano'A.'A.oov (fvv

aytzptt 'tt av1:ov Hat avaytz, Ha!!tapnHo' oov

5:Jco,, Hat 'tOV LltOYV(JOV (J007:1fp 00, a}.;;5:Joo>.

Kaz 8za -rovT'o Llzovv<JO'trJ' avvptz'tat. Hence, as the same author beautifully observes, the soul revolves according to a mystic and mundane revolution : for flying from an indivisible and Dionysiacal life, and operating according to a Titanic and revolting energy, she becomes bound in the body as in a prison. Hence, too, she abides in punishment and takes care of her partial and secondary concerns ; and being punfied from Titanic defilements, and collected into one, she becomes a Bacc~us ; that is, she passes into the proper integrity of her nature according to

•


Bacckt'c Mysteries. 139

the divine principle ruling on high. From all which it evidently follows, that he who lives Dionysiacally rests from labors and is freed from his bonds;* that he leaves his prison, -or rather his apostatizing life ; and that he who does this is a philosopher purifying him~ self from the contaminations of his earthly life. But farther from this account of Di~ nysus, we may perceive the truth of Plato's -observation, "that the design of the Mysteries is to lead us back to the perfection from which, as our beginning, we first made our de·scent." For in this perfection Dionysus himself subsists, establishing perfect souls in the throne of his father ; that is, in the integrity of a life according to Jupiter. So that he who is perfect necessarily resides with the gods, according to the design of those deities, who are the sources of con" summate perfection to the soul. And lastly, the Thyrsus itself, which was used in the Bacchic procession, as it was a reed full of ' * " We strive toward virtue by a strenuous use of the gifts

which God communicates ; but when God communicates himself, then we can be only passive--we repose, we enjoy, but all operation ceases."


Eleusinian and

knots, is an apt symbol of the diffusion of the higher nature into the sensible world. And agreeable to this, Olympiodorus on the Phcedo observes," that the Thyrsus *is a symbol of a forming anew of the material and parted substance from its scattered condition ; and that on this account it is a Titanic plant. This it was customary to extend before Bacchus instead of his paternal sceptre; and through this they called him down into our partial nature. Indeed, the Titans are T.hyrsus-bearers; and Prometheus concealed fire in a Thyrsus or reed; after which he is considered as bringing celestial light into generation, or leading the soul into the body, or calling forth the divine illumination, the whole, being ungenerated, into generated existence. Hence Socrates 'calls the multitude Thyrsusbearers Orphically, as living according to a Titanic life." 'On o raps-,~; ~vpfJo'Aor e~-rz. 'f''!~

ErvA.ov 01'/J.lZOvpyza~, Jtaz pepz~'f'1'/'i, ?za 'f'1'/Y paA.z~

-ra otE~7tappEr1'/r ~vrexezar, o:3-er Jtaz Tz-rarzJtov

-ro <pV'f'OY. Kaz yap -rrp L1zorv~rp 7tponzrov~zv

* The word thyrsus, it will be seen, i~ here translated from

7't:r.P~71~' a rod or ferula.


Bacchz& Mystedes.

avn:p, arn -rov 1ta-rpzxov ~H.q?t-rpov. Kaz -rav-rtr

npoxalovr-ra' av-ror Et' -ror pepzxor. Kaz per-' T • -roz, xaz rap5:J'qxoqJopov~tr oz z-rare,, xat o

Ilpopq5:J'wr;, er rap5:J'qxf xle1tn -ro 7tvp, ezn -ro

ovparzor qJUJ' ezr; -rqr yere~tr xa-ra~?tcur, ezn

-rqr tf;vxqr Et' -ro ~cupa ?tpoaycur, ezn -rqr 5:;-ezar

eAAapt/Jtr oAqr ayerrq-ror OV~ar, Ett; -rqr yerE

~tr 1tpoxalovperor;. .&za oe -rov-ro, xaz o ~UJ

xpa-rq' -rov' 1tollov' xalet rap5:J'qxoqJopovr; Op

<pzxcu,, G)r; t:cur-rar; Tz-rarzxcu,.

And thus much for the secret meaning of the fable, which formed a principal part of these mystic rites. Let us now proceed to consider the signification of the symbols, which, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, belonged to the Bacchic ceremonies; and which are comprehended in the following Orphic verses :

Kr11wo>, "'n poJlfJo>, "'u ttcnyrta "aJl1ttldtyvta M,A.a Te xpvdtla "aA.a '/tap' Ad1ttlpt60Dr A.tyvrpOD'YODY.

That is,

A wheel, a pine-nut, and the wanton plays, Which move and bend the limbs in various ways: With these th' Hesperian golden-fruit combine, Which beauteo~s nymphs defend of voice divine,


/ /

" /

/

Eleust"nian and

To all which Clemens adds Edo?r-rpo:,, esoptron, a mt'rror, ?rOJto,, pokos, a fleece of wool~ and ao--rpayalo,, astragalos, the ankle-bone. In the first place, then, with respect to the wheel, since Dionysus, as we have already explained, is the mundane intellect, and intellect is of an elevating and convertive nature, nothing can be a more apt symbol of intellectual action than a wheel or sphere :: besides, as the laceration and dismemberment of Dionysus signifies the going-forth of intellectual illumination into matter, and its. returning at the same time to its source, this too will be aptly symholized by a wheel. In the second place, a p£ne-nut, from t"ts cont"ca! shape, is a perspicuous symbol of the manner in which intellectual or spiritual illumination proceeds from its source and beginning into a material nature. 11 For the soul," says Macrobius,* 11 proceeding from a round figure,. which is the only divine form, is extended into the form of a cone in going forth."" And the same is true symbolically of the higher intellect. And as to the wanton


Bacchz"c Mysteries.

sports which bend the limbs, this evidently alludes to the Titanic arts, by which Dionysus . was allured, and occultly signifies the faculties of the mundane intellect, considered as subsisting according to an apparent and divisible condition. But the Hesperian golden-apples signify the pure and incorrupt- . ible nature of that intellect or Dionysus, which is possessed by the world; for a golden-apple, according to Sallust, is a symbol of the world; . and this doubtless, both on account of its ex- . ternal figure, and the incorruptible intellect which it contains, and with the illuminations of which it is externally adorned ; since gold, . on account of never being subject to rust, aptly denotes an incorruptible and immaterial nature. The mirror, which is the next symbol, we have already explained. And as to the fleece of wool, this is a symbol of laceration, or distribution of intellect, or Dionysus, into matter; for the verb ~trapanro, sparatto, dz1an£o, which is used in the relation of the Bacchic discerption, signifies to tear in pieces like wool : and hence Isidorus derives the Latin word lana, wool, from lanz'ando, as ..


Eleus£n£an and

vellus from vellendo. Nor must it pass unobserved, that Airvo~, in Greek, signifies woo!, and ;\ 17vo;, a wine-press.* And, indeed, the pressing of grapes is as evident a symbol of dispersion as the tearing of wool ; and this circumstance was doubtless one principal reason why grapes were consecrated to Bacchus: for a grape, previous to its pressure, aptly represents that which is collected into one; and when it is pressed into juice, it no less aptly represents the diffusion of that which was before collected and entire. And lastly, the at1-rpayaA.o~, astragalos, or anklebone, as it is principally subservient to the progressive motion of animals, so it belongs, with great propriety, to the mystic symbols of Bacchus ; since it doubtless signifies the going forth of that deity into the department of physical existence : for nature, or that divisible life which subsists about the body, and which is productive of seeds, immediately depends on Bacchus. And hence we

* The practice of punning, so common in all the old rites, is here forcibly exhibited. It aided to conceal the symbolism and mislead uninitiated persons who might seek to ascertain the gen. uine meaning.


Bacchz"c Mysteries. 145

•are informed by Proclus, that the sexual parts

<Qf this god are denominated by theologists, D£ana, who, says he, presides over the whole .of the generation into natural existence, leads forth into light all natural reasons, and

··extends a prolific power from on high even to the subterranean realms.* And hence we may perceive the reason why, in the Orphic Hymn to Nature, that goddess is described as .. , turnz"ng round silent traces with the anklebones of her feet."

Al/lotpoY adrpaya'Aotdt 1ro8crw tXYOS' et'At6dovda.

And it is highly worthy our observation that in this verse of the hymn Nature is celebrated as Fortune, according to that description of the goddess in which she is repre· sented as standing with her feet on a wheel which she continually turns round ; as the followin,s verse from the same hymn abundantly confirms:

* Co:Jtm< nla'J' upon tlze TimtEus. 10


Eleusinian a1td

The sense of which is, ''moving with rapid motion on an eternal wheel.'' Nor ought it to seem wonderful that Nature should be celebrated as Fortune; for Fortune in the Orphic hymn to that deity is invoked as Diana: and the moon, as we have observed in the preceding section, is the avro1trov

ayaA.J.la fPVO'ew~, the self-revealing emblem of Nature; and indeed the apparent inconstancy of Fortune has an evident agr:eement with the fluctuating condition in which the dominions of nature are perpetually mvolved.

It only now remains that we explain the secret meaning of the sacred dress with which the initiated in the Dionysacal M ysteries were invested, in order to the 8porzo-pot;

( thronismos. enthroning) taking place ; or sitting in a solemn manner on a throne. about which it was customary for the other initiates to- dance. But the particulars of this habit are thus described in the Orphic verses preserved by.Macrobius :*

* Saturnalia, i. 18.


Bacchz''c Mysttrt"es.

·Tavra ye navra reAetv iepcr- 6H1!tJTl 1rvxa6arra, ;swf.la ~tov n.:l.arrezv epuxvyovS ~eA.zozo. llpwra J.lEY apyvq>eazs eva.:l.zyxtor axrzre66tr

147

IIeKJ..or <pOtYtHepoY (lege q>otrzxeor) KpviixeA.oY tXJ.l<ptfJa· .:l.ed~az .

.Avrap v1rep~e refJpozo 1rarazo.:\.ov e~pv xa!3a¢az LlEpJ.l« 1roA.v6rzxror ~,poS xara 6tEzor WJ.lO.W, .Adrpwv 6at6aA.eoov J.llf.lt)l' lepov re 1ro.:l.ozo. Eira 6' v7rtp~e Ytflp11S xpvdtoY r;.w6r1!pa fla.:l.t6!3at llawparooovra neptE dreprwv q>opeezr )ltya 671)la F.vSvS or' EH 1rtparwv rat1JS q>ae!3ilov avopovdoov XpvdttatS axrzdz f3a.:l.v poov 0Ktarozo, .Avy17 6' d6treroS ~' ava 8' 6po6op a)lq>t)ltytz6a Map)l«tPT! 6zrv6zr e.:l.z66o)ltY1J uara xvx.:\.ov, llpo6~e ~eov. Zwv71 6' ap v1ro 6repvoor a)lerp7JrWY !Jazver' ap' .O.xeavov xvx;tos, )ltya !3av)l' tz6z6e6~at.

That is,

He who desires in pomp of sacred dress The sun's resplendent body to express, Should first a ~ail assume of purple bright, Like fair white beams ~:ombin'd with fiery light: On his right shoulder, next, a mule's broad hide Widely diversified with spotted pride Should hang, an image of the pole divine, And dredal stars, whose orbs eternal shine. A golden splendid zone, then, o'er the vest He next should throw, and bind it round his breast J In mi hty token, how with golden light, The rising sun, from earth's last bounds and night Sudden emerges, and, with matchless force, Darts though old Ocean's billows in h;s course.


Eleusini'an and

A boundless splendor hence, enshrin'd in dew, Plays on his whirlpools, glorious to the view; While his circumfluent waters spread abroad, Full in the presence of the radiant god : But Ocean's circle, like a zone of light, The sun's wide bpsom girds, and charms the wond'ring sight.

In the first place, then, let us consider why this mystic dress belonging to Bacchus is to represent the sun. Now the reason of this will be evident from the following observations : according to the Orphic theology, the divine intellect of every planet is denominated a Bacchus, who is characterized in each by a different appellation ; so that the intellect of the solar deity is called Trietericus Bacchus. And in the second place, since the divinity of the sun, accorCling to the arcana of the ancient theology, has a super-mundane as well as mundane establishment, and is wholly of . an exalting or intellectual nature ; hence considered as supermundane, he must both produce and contain the mundane intellect, or Dionysus, in his essence ; for all the mundane are contained in the super-mundane deities, by wh~m also


Bacchic Mysteries. 149

they are produced. Hence Proclus, in his elegant Hymn to the Sun, says :

~e xA.vror vp,rezovt5z L1zoorvt515ozo roK17a.

That is, "they celebrate thee in hymns as the illustrious parent of Dionysus." And thirdly, it is through the subsistence of Dionysus in the sun that that luminary derives its circular motion, as is evident from the following Orphic verse, in which, speaking of the sun, it is said of him, that

----LJzoyvi5o' 6' E1tEHA1?~17> Ovrexa 6zrezraz xar' a1tezpora p,axpor OA.vp,nor.

" He is called Dionysus, because he is carried with a circular motion through the immensely-extended heavens." And this with the greatest propriety, since intellect, as we have already observed, is entirely of a transforming and elevating nature: so that from all this, it is sufficiently evident why the dress of. Dionysus is represented as belonging to the sun. In the second place, the vail, resembling a mixture of fiery light, is an obvious image of

Digitized by Coogle

ISO E leusz"nian and

the solar fire. And as to the spotted muleskin,* which is to represent the starry heavens, this is nothing more than an image of the moon ; this luminary, according to Proclus on Hesiod, resembling the mixed nature of a mule; "be<(oming dark through her participation of earth, and deriving her proper light from the sun." T17~ pEY Exov<ra ro <rxo

-ni;E<rS'ar, ~.\zov oE ro otxEzoY EtA1JXEYat cpw~.

Tavr'Y/ pEY ovY ozxEzwrat 1'(po~ aV'r'1JY ~ ~pzoyo~.

So that the spotted hide signifies the moon attended with a multitude of stars : and hence, in the Orphic Hymn to the Moon, that deity is celebrated "as shining surrounded with beautiful stars :" xa.\or~ a<rrpoz<rz fJpv

ou<ra, and is likewise called a<rrpapx1J, as

trarche, or queen of the stars."

In the next place, the golden zone is the circle of the Ocean, as the last verses plainly evince. But, you will ask, what has the rising of the sun through the ocean, from the boundaries of earth and night, to do with the

* Ne!Jris is also a fawn-skin. The Jewish high-priest wore one at the great festivals. It is rendered "badger's skin" in the Bible. In India the robe of Indra is spotted.


Bacch£c Myster£es.

adventures of Bacchus? I answer, that it is impossible to devise a symbol more beautifully accommodated to the purpose : for, in the first place, is not the ocean a proper emblem of an earthly nature, whirling and stormy, and perpetually rolling without admitting any periods of repose? And is not the sun emerging from its boisterous deeps a perspicuous symbol of the higher spiritual nature, apparently rising from the dark and fluctuating material receptacle, and conferring form and beauty on the sensible universe through its light? I say apparently rising, for though the spiritual nature always diffuses its splendor with invariable energy, yet it ;s not always perceived by the subjects of its illuminations ; besides, as psychical natures can only receive partially and at intervals the benefits of the divine irradiation ; hence fables regarding this temporal participation transfer, for the purpose of concealment and in conformity to the phenomena, the imperfection of subordinate natures to such as are supreme. This description, therefore, of the rising sun, is a most beautiful


E leusz'nz'an and

symbol of the new birth of Bacchus, which, as we have already observed, implies nothing more than the rising of intellectual light, and its consequent manifestation to subordinate orders of existence.

And thus much for the mysteries of Bacchus, which, as well as those of Ceres, relate in one part to the descent _of a partial intellect into matter, and its condition while united with the dark tenement of the -body : but there appears to be this difference between the two, that in the fable of Ceres and Proserpina the descent of the whole rational soul is considered ; and in that of Bacchus the scattering and going forth of that supreme part alone of our nature whz'th we properly characterzze by the appella#on of z'ntellect.* In the composition of each we may discern the same traces of exalted wisdom and recondite theology; of a theology the most venerable for its antiquity, and the most admirable for its excellence and reality.

*Greek, Yov), nous, the Intuitive Reason, that faculty of the mind that apprehends the Ineffable Truth.


Baccllic MysterZ:es. 153

I shall conclude this treatise by presenting the reader with a valuable and most elegant hymn of Proclus* to Minerva, which I have discovered in the British Museum; and the existence of which appears to have been hitherto utterly unknown. This hymn is to be found among the Harleian Manuscripts, in a volume containing several of the Orphic hymns, with which, through the ignorance of transcriber, it is indiscriminately ranked, as well as the other four hymns of Proclus, already printed in the B£btz:otheca Graca of Fabricius. Unfortunately too, it is transcribed in a character so obscure, and with such great inaccuracy, that, notwithstanding the pains I have taken to restore the text to its original purity, I have been obliged to omit two lines, and part of a third, as beyond my abilities to read or amend ; however, the greatest, and doubtless the . most important part, is fortunately intelligible, which I now present to the reader's inspection, accompa-

* That the following hymn was composed by Proclus, can not be doubted by any one who is conversant with those already extant of this incomparable man, since the spirit and manner in both is perfectly the same.


\ \

I

154 E leusi?zian and

nied with some corrections, and an English paraphrased translation. The original is highly elegant and pious, and contains one mythological particular, which is no where else to be found It has likewise an evident connection with the preceding fable of Bacchus, as will be obvious from the perusal ; and on this account principally it was inserted in the present discourse.

KAT6JI JUV a1yzoxozo 6zos rexos· ~ yeYET7Jpot; I17!Y1JS ex1fpo:3opov6a, xat axporar17> a1fo 6upat; Ap6eYo:3VJ.I.E' tpepa61fz· J.I.Eya6:3eyet;· of3pzJ.1.o1far71p,* Kex;tv:f)z· 6exYv6o 6' VJ.I.YOY evtppoYz 1foTYta :3vpOD 'H 6otpz7J> 1fera6a6a lleo6rvf3east 1fVAEODYa>. Kaz x:3oYZOOY 6aJ.I.a6a6a IJEOOJ.I.axa tpVAa yzyaYTODY. H xpa6z71Y e6aoo6aS aJ.I.v6nJ..evroY t ayaxro> Az:3epoS EY yva}..oz6z J.I.Epz~OJ.I.EYOV 1fore Baxxov TtraYOOY V1(0 xep6z, 1fopes lie e 1(arpz tpepovda Otppa Yeos f3ovA7J6tY att' app71rozdz rox17o>, Ex ~EJ.I.EA1f> 1fEpt xodf.I.OY aY17f317617 Azoyv6do>. 'Ht; 1feAExzt;§ IJ'7ptooY Tct!J.YOOY 1fpoiJeAVJ.I.Yct xap71Yt% IlaYlJEpXoVt; exar17t; 1(a:f)EQ)Y ~YVdE YtJYE:3A7!Y' 'H xparo> 'Hpat; 6EJ.I.YOY eyepdz f3port»Y (Xpera'ODY

*Lege of3pzJ.I.o1faTp1f. t Lege llwdef3eta>. t Lege auvdn A.vrov. § Lege 1fel..exv>.


Bacch£c Mysteries. ISS

R fJzorov xoi5JJ-,da> oA.ov ttoA.vez8edt rexrat>,

Ll~JJtovpytXTfY otp7fv * '1/JVxazdt fJaA.A.ovda·

'H .:taxes axpo?roA.za ••••

';$vJJf3oA.ov axporar71> J.UyaATfS deo 1torvza detp1f'>'

'H x~ova fJoonavezpa cptA.1fda> #1frtpa> (3zfJA.oov. OuvoJJa a6z v 8t 8ooxar; exezv 6eo xaz cppeva> ed.9-A.at;.

KA.v~z JJEV ri cpao> dyvov a7tadrpa1!rovda 1!po6oo7tov·

LJot; 8e JJOl o.:\.fhoy Op#OY tXAOOOJJEYa 7ttpl yazav.

LJor; '1/Jvxv cpao> ayvov a1!' evzpeoov 6eo JJV.9-oov·

Kat 6ocpt1fY' xaz epoora· JJtvo> 8'tJJ7tYtvdor tpoon,

Tod6anov, xat rozov, odov x.9ovzoov a?ro xoA1!0iJY

A'f/Jepv1f 7tpo> 0.:\.uf.t'Ttov t> 1f.9'ta ?rarpo> toto,

Et8t n> aJJ7tAaXt1f#E t xax71 jJH rozo 8aJJa/;et.

1Aa.9t petA.zxof3ovA.e· 6aoJJfJpore· #1f8tJJtad7f> t 'Pzye8arat> 7tozvaz6zv eA.oop xatxup#a yeve66a,

KetJJEYOY EY 8a7tt8ozdzv, Ort reot; EVXO#at ElYat•

KexA.v.9-t xexA.v.9-t· xat pot JJtzA.zdxzy ova> tJttoxe>.

TO MINERVA.

DAUGHTER of regis-bearing Jove, divine, Propitious to thy votaries' prayer incline; From thy great father's fount supremely bright, Like fire resounding, leaping into light. Shield-bearing goddess, hear, to whom belong A manly mind, and power to tame the strong ! Oh, sprung from matchless might, with joyful mind Accept this hymn ; benevolent lmd kind ! The holy gates of wisdom, by thy hand

* J..ege Op#1fY.

t Lege a#1!AaX1fJJa.

t Lege f.l1f8' ep' ead1f).


\

Eleus£n£an and

Are wide unfolded ; and the daring band Of earth-born giants, that in impious fight Strove with thy fire, were vanq.uished by thy might. Once by thy care, as sacred poets sing, The heart of Bacchus, swiftly-slaughtered king, Was sav'd in .IEther, when, with fury fired, The Titans fell against his life conspired; And with relentless rage and thirst for gore, Their hands his members into fragments tore: But ever watchful of thy father's wiii, Thy power preserv'd him from succeeding ill, Tiii from the secret counsels of his fire, And born from Semele! through heavenly sire, Great Dionysus to the world at length Again appeared with renovated strength. Once, too, thy warlike ax, with matchless sway, Lopped from their savage necks the heads away Of furious beasts, and thus the pests destroyed Which long all-seeing Hecat6 annoyed. By thee benevolent great Juno's might Was roused, to furnish mortals with delight. And thro' life's wide and various range, 'tis thine Each part to beautify with art divine : Invigorated hence by thee, we find A demiurgic impulse in the miJld. Towers proudly raised, and for protection strong. To thee, dread gua~ian deity, belong, As proper symbols of th' exalted height Thy series claims amidst the courts of light. Lands are beloved by thee, to learning prone, And Athens, Oh Athena, is thy own ! Great gQddess, hear! and on my dark'ned mind Pour thy pure light in measure unconfined ;That sacred light, Oh all-protecting queen,


Bacch£c llfysterz'es.

Which beams eternal from thy face serene. My soul, while wand'ring on the earth, inspire With thy own blessed and impulsive fire: And from thy fables, mystic and divine, Give all her powers with holy light to shine. Give love, give wisdom, and a power to love, Incessant tending to the realms above; Such as unconscious of base earth's control Gently attracts the vice-subduing soul : From night's dark region aids her to retire, And once more gain the palace of her sire. 0 all-propitious to my prayer incline! Nor let those horrid punishments be mine Which guilty souls in Tartarus confine, With fetters fast'ned to its brazen floors, And lock'd by hell's tremendous iron doors. Hear me, and save (for power is all thine own) A soul desirous to be thine alone.*

157

It is very remarkable in this hymn, that the exploits of Minerva relative to cutting off the heads of wild beasts with an ax, etc., is mentioned by no writer whatever; nor >Can I find the least trace of a circumstance either in the history of Minerva or Hecate to which it alludes.t And from hence, I

,. If I should ever be able to publish a second edition of my translation of the hymns of Orpheus, I shall add to it a translation of all those hymns of Proclus, which are fortunately extant; but which are nothing more than the wreck of a great multitude which he composed.

t If Mr. Taylor had been conversant with Hindu literature, he

. . . . . . .. :··. ::· .... . . .... .... . ·.·. . .

Digitized by Coogle

\ \

I

\

Bacchic M;~stert"es.

think, we may reasonably conclude that it belonged to the arcane Orphic narrations concerning these goddesses, which were consequently but rarely mentioned, and this but by a few, whose works, which might afford us some clearer information are unfortunately lost.

would have perceived that these exploits of Minerva-Athen~ were taken from the buffalo-sacrifice of Durga or Bhavani. The whole Dionysiac legend is but a rendering of the Sivaic and Buddhistic legends jnto a Grecian dress.-A. W.


APPENDIX.

SINCE writing the above Dissertation, I have met with a curious Greek manu

script, entitled : "Of Psellus, Concernz"ngDamons,* accordz"ng- to the op£nz'on of the Greeks": rov YTe.U.ov nva nepz oazJtorwv

· oo~a~ovt:nv 'EU17ve': In the course of which he describes the machinery of the Eleusinian Mysteries as follows :-:4 oe ye ftV~r1Jpza rov

rwv, o{ov avnxa ra EA.ev~zvza, rov ftvs-zxov

V?rOXpzveraz Ola ftlYYVfteYOY 'T1J 01JOl1 ~' 'T1J Ll1Jft1J

repz1 X«l 'T1J 8vyarepez 'T«V'T1J' i/Jep~e<p«'TT'1J 'T1J xaz Kof»7. Enezo'7 oe efteA.A.ov xaz arppooz~wz

e1tz T''7 ftV'l~et yzve~s-az ~Vft?rAOxaz, avaoveraz

nws ~ Arppoozr1J ano nvwv nenA.a~Jterwv ft1JOe

wv neA.ayzo,. Ezra oe Y«ft'7AZOS e1tz 'T1J Kop1J VftevazM. Kaz enaoov~zv o{ -reA.ovftevoz, ex T'Vft

navov upayov ex XVJtfJaA.wv e1tzov, exzpvorpo-

* Dremons, divinities, spirits ; a term formerly applied to all rational b~ings, good or bad, other than mortals.


\

160 Appendix.

P'ltfa (lege enepYOfPOP'!t5a) v1ro rov 7rat5rov ezt5eovv. 'T7ronpzveraz oe naz ra' DT70V' ooozva, •

.. [H.Ef'TlPZaz yovY aVTZH.a 01'/0V,, Kaz xo'A,, 1fOt5z),

naz napoza'Ayzaz. EgJ' o{, nat rpayot5ne'Ae' J.LZ

fl'!J.la 7ta'f7atYOJ.lEYOY 7tEp'z roz' ozoVJ.lOl'' on 7tEp

J Zev) ozna' a1torzvvv' f'Tl' fha' Ttl A'!J.l'lf'EPZ repayov (lege Tpayov) opxez' a7tOTEJ.lotw, rep no'A1tc.o ravr'l' nare:tero, rot57tEp 0'7 naz eavTov. E1tz 7tat5tY a{ rov L1zovvt5ov f'ZJ.laz, H.az,; H.Vt5"fl,,

naz Ta 7tolvOJ.ltpala 1to1tara, H.az o{ Tc.o ~afJa

ezc.o f'EAOVJ.lEYOl1 H.A'!OOYE) re H.al J.llJ.la'A.c.ove,, H.at

n' '!XC.OY lefJ'l' @et57tpc.o-rezo) naz L1c.ooc.ovazov

xa'Anezov, H.az KopvfJa' aAAO) H.al H.OVP'l' Ef'E

po,, oatj.lOYC.OY J.llJ.l'!J.laf'a. EgJ' o{, ,; BafJc.orov)

(lege ,; BavfJc.o rov') J.l'!POV) avat5vpOJ.LEYT7, naz o yvvazno) nrez,, ovrc.o yap OYOJ.laeovt5z f'T/Y

azoc.o alt5XVYOJ.lEYOl. Kaz OVTC.O) EY azt5xpc.o T''!Y

relETT7Y naralvovt5zv. I. e. "The Mysteries of these demons, such as the Eleusinia, con.sisted in representing the mythical narration of Jupiter mingling with Ceres and her daughter Proserpina (Phersephatte). But as venereal connections are in the initiation,* a Venus is represented rising from the sea, from .certain moving sexual parts : afterwards the

* I. e. a representation of them.


Appendix. r6r

celebrated marriage of Proserpina (with Pluto) takes place ; and those who are initiated sing :

"'Out of the drum I have eaten, Out of th~ cymbal I have drank, The mystic vase I have sustained, The bed I have entered.'

Tlfe pregnant throes likewise of Ceres [Deo] are represented : hence the supplica-

-tions of Deo are exhibited; the drinking of bile, and the heart-aches. · After this, an effigy with the thighs of a goat makes its appearance, which is represented as suffering vehemently about the testicles : because J upiter, as if to expiate the violence which he had offered to Ceres, is represented as cutting off the testicles of a goat, and placing them on her bosom, as if they were his own. But after all this, the rites of Bacchus succeed ; the Cista, and the cakes with many bosses, like those of a shield. Likewise the mysteries of Sabazius, divinations, and the mimalons or Bacchants; a certain sound of the Thesprotian bason ; the Dodonrean brass ;

I I


A ppendz'x.

another Corybas, and another Proserpina,representations of Demons. After these succeed the uncovering of the thighs of Bau~o. and a woman's comb (kteis) for thus, through a sense of shame, they denominate the sexual parts of a woman. And thus, with scandalous exhibitions, they finish the initiation."

From this curious passage, it appears that the Eleusinian Mysteries comprehended those of almost all the gods ; and this account will not only throw light on the relation of the Mysteries given by Clemens Alexandrinus. but likewise be elucidated by it in several particulars. I would willingly unfold to the reader the mystic meaning of the whole of this machinery, but this can not be accomplished by any one, without at least the possession of all the Platonic manuscripts which are extant. This acquisition, which I would infinitely prize above the wealth of the Indies, will, I hope, speedily and fortunately be mine, and then I shall be no less anxious to communicate this arcane information. than the liberal reader will be to receive it.


Append-ix.

I shall only therefore observe, that the mutual communication of energies among the gods was called by ancient theologists lepM

ya;.ws, hz"eros gamos, a sacred marr-iage/ concerning which Proclus, in the second book of his manuscript Commentary on the Parmen-ides, admirably remarks as follows: Tavnrv oe T'7Y xowwrzar, 1ro-a per er f'oz~ o-v(J'f'ozxozs opcvO"z !feoz!i ( o{ .9-eo.i\.oyoz) Jtaz JtaAOVI1Z

yapoY 'HpaS xaz Llzo~, Ovparov xaz r,s, Kpo

YOV xaz 'Pea!i• 1ro-a oe TWY xaTaoeeo--apwr 1rpo~

-ra xpezrrw, xaz xa.i\.ovo-z yapor Llw~ xaz Ll'lJ-1'1-Tpa~· 'dOTE OE Jtal Ejl'da.i\.zy TWY XpEZT"fWYWY

7rpo~ -ra v<pEZJ-lEYa, xaz .i\.eyovo-z Llzo!i Jtaz KoP'l!i yapor. E1rEZ0'7 f'WY 8ewr a.i\..i\.az per ezo-zr a{

1rpos -ra o-vo--rozxa xozrcvrzaz, a.i\..i\.az oe a{ 1rpM

-ra 1rpo av-rcvr• a.i\..i\.az oe a{ 1rpo~.-ra pe-ra -rav-ra.

Kaz oez T'7Y exaO""f'l~ zozo"f'7"fa xa-raroew Nat pe

-rayezr a1r0 TWY 8ECVY E7rt Ta Et0'7 "f'7Y "fOtaV"f'71/

oza1r.i\.ox,r. I..e. "Tbeologists at one time considered this communion of the gods in divinities co-ordinate with each other; and then they called it the marriage of Jupiter and Juno, of Heaven and Earth [Uranos and Ge ], of Saturn and Rhea : but at another


Appendix.

time, they considered it as subsisting between subordinate and . superior divinities ; and then they called it the marriage of J up iter and Ceres; but at another time, on the contrary, they beheld it as subsisting between superior and subordinate divinities ; and then they called it the marriage of J upiter and Kore. For in the gods there is one kind of communion between such as are of a co-ordinate nature ; another between the subordinate and supreme ; and another again between the supreme and subordinate. And it is necessary to understand the peculiarity <>f each, and to transfer a conjunction of this kind from the gods to the communion of ideas with each other." And in Timaus, book i., he observes : xaz -ro -rrw av-rTfV (supple .9-EaY) {-repoz' ~' 'rOV aV'rOY .9-EOY n'AEZOC1l ~V~EV

yyv~.9'az, lafioz) aY ex -rc.:w }lV~nxc.:w loyc.:w,

xaz -rc.:w EY anoppTf-roz' leyO)JEYGJY lepwY ya}lWY.

I. e. "And that the same goddess is conjoined with other gods, or the same god with many goddesses, may be collected from the mystic discourses, and those marriages which are called in the Mysteries Sacred Marriages."


•

Appendix.

Thus far the divine Proclus; from the first of which passages the reader may perceive how adultery and rapes, as represented in the machinery of the Mysteries, are to be understood when applied to the gods; and that they mean nothing more than a communication of divine energies, either between a superior and subordinate, or subordinate and superior, divinity. I only add, that the apparent indecency of these exhibitions was, as I have already observed, exclusive of its mystic meaning, designed as a remedy for the passions of the soul: and hen~e mystic ceremonies were very properly called axea, akea, medicines, by the obscure and noble Heracleitus.*

• lAMBUCHus: De Myslniu •

Digitized by Coogle

166 Appendix.

ORPHIC HYMNS.

I shall utter to whom it is lawful ; but let the doors be closed, Nevertheless, against all the profane. But do thou hear, Oh Musreus, for I will declare what is true .•••

He is the One, self-proceeding; and from him all things proceed. And in them he himself exerts his activity; no mortal Beholds Him, but he beholds all.

There is one royal body in which all things are enwombed, Fire and Water, Earth, .iEther, Night and Day, And Counsel [Ml'lis], the first producer, and delightful Love,For all these are contained in the great body of Zeus.

Zeus, the mighty thunderer, is first ; Zeus is last ; Zeus is the head, Zeus the middle of all things ; From Zeus were all things produced. He is male, he is female; Zeus is the depth of the e~rth, the height of the starry heavens ; He is the breath of all things, the force of untamed fire; The bottom of the sea; Sun, Moon, and Stars; Origin of all ; King of all ; One Power, one God, one Great Ruler.


Appendix.

HYMN OF CLEANTHES.

Greatest of the gods, God with many names, God ever-ruling, and ruling all things !

Zeus, origin of Nature, governing the universe by law, All hail ! For it is right for mortals to address thee; For we are thy offspring, and we alone of all That live and creep on earth have the power of imitative speech. Therefore will I praise thee, and hymn forever thy power. Thee the wide heaven, which surrounds the earth, obeys : Following where thou wilt, willingly obeying thy law. Thou boldest at thy service, in thy mighty hands, The two-edged, flaming, immortal thunderbolt, Before whose flash all nature trembles. Ttou rul~st in the common reason, which goes through all, And appears mingled in all things, great or small, Which filling all nature, is king of all existences. Nor without thee, Oh Deity,* does anything happen in the world, From the divine ethereal pole to the great ocean, Except only the evil preferred by the senseless wicked. But thou also art able to bring to order that which is chaotic, Giving form to what is formless, and making the discordant

friendly; So reducing all variety to unity, and even making good out of evil. Thus throughout nature is one great law Which only the wicked seek to disobey,-Poor fools ! who long for happiness, But will not see nor hear the divine commands. {In frenzy blind they stray away from good, By thirst of glory tempted, or sordid avarice, Or pleasures sensual, and joys that pall.) But do thou, Oh Zeus, all-bestower, cloud-compeller I

*Greek, LlatpoY, D~mon.


t68 Appendix.

Ruler of thunder ! guard men from sad error. Father ! dispel the clouds of the soul, and let us follow The laws of thy great and just reign ! That we may be honored, let us honor thee again, Chanting thy great deeds, as is proper for mortals, For nothing can be better for gods or men Than to adore with h~ns the Universal King.•

• Rev. J. Freeman Clarke, whose version is here copied, renders this phrase, "the law common to all." The Greek text reads : H ~ XOIYOY an YOf.lOY EY 15tX1) Vf.lYUY,''-the term VO)lor;,

Mmos, or Law, being used for King, as Love is for God.-A. W.

• Digitized by Goog I e

GLOSSARY.

Apqt'rMta, Greek arropp11ra-The instructions given by the hierophant or interpreter in the Eleusinian Mysteries, not to be disclosed on pain of death. There was said to be a synopsis of them in the pdroma or two stone tablets, which, it is said, were bound together in the form of a book.

Apostatis~To fall or descend, as the spiritual part of the soul is said to descend from it& divine home to the world of nature.

Catnarlic-Purifying. The term was used by the Platonists and others in connection with the ceremonies of purification before initiation, also to the corresponding performance of rites and duties which renewed the moral life. The catkllrlic 'llirluu were the duties and mode of living, which conduced to that end. The phrase is used but once or twice in this edition.

Cnus~The agent by which things are generated or produced. Circulation-The peculiar spiral motion or progress by which the

spiritual nature or "intellect" descended from the divine region of the universe into the world of sense.

Cugitntiv~-Relating to the understanding : dianoetic. Conj~cture, or Opiniun-A mental conception that can be changed

by argument. Curl-A name; of Ceres or Demeter, applied by the Orphic and

later writers to her daughter Persephone or Proserpina. She was supposed to typify the spiritual nature which was ab" ducted by Hades or Pluto into the Underworld, the figure signifying the apostasy or descent of the soul from the higher life to the material body.

Cwically-After the manner of Proserpina, i. e., as if descending into death from the supernal world.


170 Glossary.

Damon-A d..:signation of a certain class of divmities. Different authors employ the term differently. Hesiod regards them as the souls of the men who lived in the Golden Age, now acting as guardian or tutelary spirits. Socrates, in the Cratylus, says " that daemon is a term denoting wisdom, and that every good man is daemonian, both while living and when dead, and is rightly called a daemon." His own attendant spirit that checked him whenever he endeavored to do what he might n<>t, was styled his Daemon. Iamblichus places Daemons in the second order of spiritual existence.-Cleanthes, in his celebrated Hymn, styles Zeus 8at.p,oY (daimon).

D~miurgus-The creator. It was the title of the chief-magistrate in several Grecian States, and in this work is applied to Zeus or Jupiter, or the Ruler of the Universe. The latter Platonists, and more especially the Gnostics, who regarded matter as constituting or containing the principle of Evil, sometimes applied this term to the Evil Potency, who, some of them affirmed, was the Hebrew God.

Distribut~d-Reduced from a whole to parts and scattered. The spiritual nature or intellect in its higher estate was regarded as a whole, but in descending to worldly conditions, became divided into parts or perhaps characteristics.

Divisib1~-Made into parts or attributes, as the mind, intellect or spiritual, first a whole, became thus distinguished in its descent. This division was regarded as a fall into a lower plane of life.

ENrgis~. Greek evepyeOD--To operate .or work, especially t.o undergo discipline of the heart and character.

ENrgy--Operation, activity. Ett'rna/-Existing through all past time, and still continuing. Faith-The correct conception of a thing as it seems,-fidel-

ity. Fre~dom--The ruling power of one's life; a power over what per

tains to one's self in life. Friendship-Union of sentiment; a communion in doing well. Fury-The peculiar mania, ardor, or enthusiasm which inspired

and actuated prophets, poets, interpreters of oracles, !lnd others ; also a title of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone as the chastisers of the wicked,-also of the Eumenides.


Glossary. I 71

Generation, Greek ytvto'z>-Generated existence. the mode of life peculiar to this world, but which is equivalent to death, so far as the pure intellect or ~piritual nature is concerned ; the process by which the soul is separated from the higher form of existence, and brought into the conditions of life upon the earth. It was regarded as a punishment, and according to Mr. Taylor, was prefigured by the abduction of Proserpina. The soul is supposed to have pre-existed with God as a pure intellect like him, but not actually identicalat one but not ab3olutely the same.

Good-That which is desired on its own account. Hades-A n~me of Pluto; the Underworld, the state or region of

departed souls, as understood J:.y classi<; writers : the physical nature, the corporeal existence, the condition of the soul while in the bodily life.

Herald, Greek x77pvE-The crier at the Mysteries. Hierophant-The interpreter who explained the purport of the

mystic doctrines and dramas to the candidates. Holiness, Greek oo'zor77S'-Attention to the hc~>nor due to God. Idea-A principle in all minds underlying our cognitions of the

sensible world. Imprudent-Without foresight; deprived of sagacity. Infernal regions-'Hades, the Underworld. /nstru<tion-A power to cure the soul. .lntellect, Greek vov>-Aiso rendered pure reason, and by Profes

sor Cocker, intuitive reason, and the rational soul ; the spiritual nature. " The organ of self•evident, necessary, and universal truth. In an immediate, direct, and intuitive manner, it takes hold on truth with absolute certainty. The reason, through the medium of ideas, holds communion with the world of real Being. These ideas are the light which reveals the world of unseen realities, as the sun reveals the world of sensible forms. • The ldea of the good is the Sun of the IntelJ.igible World; it sheds on objects the light of truth, and gives to the soul that knows, the power of knowing.' Under this light the eye of reason apprehends the eternal world of being as truly, yet more truly, than the eye of sense apprehends the world of phenomena. This power the rational soul possesses by virtue of its having a nature kindred, or even homogeneous with


Glossary.

Intefl~ct-Contimud.

the Di'"inity. It was 'generated by the Divine Father.' and like him, it is in a certain sense 'eternal.' Not that we are to unders~and Plato as teaching that the rational soul had an independent and unclerived existence ; it was created or 'generated' in eternity, and even now, in its incorporate state. is not amenable to the condition of time and space, but, in a peculiar sense, dwells in eternity : and therefore is capable of beholding eternal realities, and coming into communion with absolute beauty, and goodness, and truth-that is, with God, the Absolut~ B~ing."-Christianily and Gruk Philosophy, x. pp. 349· 350.

Int~llutiv~-Intuitive ; perceivable by spiritual insight. Int~lligibl~Relating to the higher reason. Int~rprdff-The hierophant or sacerdotal teacher who, on the last

day of the Eleusinia, explained the pdroma or stone book to the candidates, and unfolded the final meaning of· the representations and symbols. In the Phcenician language he was called ,M£), pd~r. Hence the pdroma, consisting of two tablets of stone, wa.~ a pun on the designation, to imply the wisdom to be unfolded. It has b£en suggested by the Rev. Mr. Hyslop, that the Pope derived his claim, as the successor of Peter, from his succession to the rank and function of the Hierophant of the Mysteries, and not from the celebrated Apostle, who probably was never in Rome.

J"us/-Productive of justice. J"usliu-The harmony or perfect proportional action of all the

powers of the soul, and comprising equity, veracity, fidelity, usefulness, benevolence, and purity of mind, or holiness.

J"udgmmt-A peremptory decision covering a disputed matter~ also 6taYota, dianoia, or understanding.

Knowl~dg~A comprehension by the mind of fact not to be overthrown or modified by argument.

Legis/aliv~-Regulating.

Less~r Mystnies-The releraz, lddai, or ceremonies of purification, which were celebrated at Agrae, prior to full initiation at Eleusis. Those initiated on this occasion were styled pvt5rat, mysta:, from pvoo, muo, to vail; and their initi:ltion was called J.tVrttSt>, muesis, or vailing, as expressive of being vailed from the former life.

Digitized by Coogle

Glossary. 173

Magic-Persian ma.<• Sanscrit malza, great. Relating to the order of the Magi of Persia and Assyria.

Mat~rial d•mzons-Spirits of a nature so gross as to be able to assume visible bodies like individuals still living on the Earth.

Matttr-The elements of the world, and especially of the human body, in which the idea of evil is contained and the soul incarcerated. Greek vA.17, Hull or Hyll.

llfuuis, Greek JJ.vr,ISz<;, from )Jvoo, to vail-The last act in the Lesser Mysteries, or reA.eraz, t~letai, denoting the separating of the initiate from the former exoteric life.

Myst~riu-Sacred dramas performed at stated periods. The most celebrated were those of Isis, Sabazius, Cybel~, and Eleusis.

Mystic-Relating to the Mysteries: a person initiated in the Lesser Mysteries-Greek pvl5raz.

Occult-Arcane ; hidden ; pertaining to the mystical sense. Orgiu, Greek opyzaz-The peculiar rites of the Bacchic Myste-

ries. Opittion-A hypothesis or conjecture. Partial-Divided, in parts, and not a whole. Philologist-One pursuing literature. Plzilo.roplz~r-One skilled in philosophy; one disciplined in a right

life. Plzilosoplzis~-To investigate final causes; to undergo discipline of

the life. Plzilosoplzy-The aspiration of the soul after wisdom and truth.

" Plato asserted philosophy to be the science of unconditioned being, and asserted that this was known to the soul by its intuitive reason (intellect or spiritual instinct) which is the organ of all philosophic insight. The reason perceives substance; the understanding, only phenomena. Being (ro or), which is the reality in all actuality, is in the ideas or thoughts of God ; and nothing exists (or appears outwardly), except by the force of this indwelling idea. The WORD is the true expre$sion of the nature of every object : for each has its divine and natural name, beside its accidental human appellation. Philosophy is the recollection of what the soul has seen of things and their names." (J. FREEMAN CLARKE.)

Plotinus-A philosopher who lived in the Third Century, and revived the doctrines of Plato.

Digitized by Coogle

t&9 59

Glossary.

Pn~dmt-Having foresight. Purgatitm, purijicatitm-The introduction into the Tekta or Lesser

Mysteries; a separation of the external principles from the soul.

Punisl,unt-The curing of the soul of its errors. Prophet, Greek ,uaYnS-One possessing the prophetic mania, or

inspiration. Priest-Greek JJaYrt'i-A prophet or inspired person, iepevs--a

sacerdotal person. Rrvo/1-A rolling away, the career of the soul in its descent from

the pristine divine condition. &imct-The knowledge of universal, necessary, unchangeable. and

eternal ideas. Snows-The peculiar dramatic representations of the Mysteries. Ttltll, Greek reA.er71-The finishing or consummation; the Lesser

Mysteries. TMologist-A teacher of the literature relating to the gods. TMor#ica/-Perceptive. Torck6tart1"-A priest who hore a torch at the Mysteries. Titans-The beings who made war against Kronos or Saturn. E.

'Pococke identifies them with the Daityas of India, who resisted the Brahmans. In the Orphic legend, they are described as slaying the child Bacchus.Zagreus. •

Titanic-Relating to the nature of Titans. Transmigralitm-The passage of the soul from one condition of

being to another. This has not any necessary reference to any rehabilitation in a corporeal nature, or body of flesh and blood. See I Corinthians, xv.

Virtue-A good mental condition; a stable disposition. Virtues-Agencies, rites, influences. Cathartic Virtues-Purify

ing rites or in.fluences. Wisdom-The knowledge of things as they exist ; "the approach

to God as the substance of goodness in truth." World-The cosmos, the universe, as distinguished from the earth

and human existence upon it.

AA A 30


1875 Taylor Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries

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